SAO PAULO – Claudia Gadelha dominated Cortney Casey from bell to bell, but her victory was marred by a blatantly illegal kick that received not even a verbal warning from the fight’s referee.
When the final scorecards were read, Gadelha’s (14-2 MMA, 3-2 UFC) lead was such that a point deduction wouldn’t have changed the result. A unanimous 30-27 was the result, but Casey (6-4 MMA, 2-3 UFC) didn’t entirely get a fair shake.
The women’s strawweight bout was part of the main card of today’s UFC Fight Night 100 event at Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo. It aired on FS1 following early prelims on UFC Fight Pass.
The matchup between onetime title challenger Gadelha and Casey, who was involved in a car accident during her training camp, followed a predictable pattern over three rounds. The moment Casey began to let her hands go and fire off combinations, she was taken to the mat by Gadelha. An active guard kept the Brazilian from doing much from the top position, but Casey struggled to get much of any momentum.
The situation got worse for Casey in the second as Gadelha pressed her to the fence and landed a huge left hand off the clinch. When she chased down a retort, she was easily taken to the mat.
Gadelha, the No. 2 ranked fighter in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA women’s strawweight rankings, repeated the sequence in the final rounds. But as Casey sat up, she unleashed a kick and made direct contact with the head. Casey immediately went to the canvas, clutching her head in pain. But amazingly, the referee did little other than monitor Casey as she staggered to her feet, using the cage to balance herself.
Clearly injured as the result of the strike, Casey might not have been in the condition to continue, and the bout could have gone to the scorecards. Instead, the referee, Fernando Portella, eventually called in a doctor to check on the fighter. But he did not warn Gadelha, who later claimed she was hunting for a body kick, and didn’t deduct a point.
When the bout was restarted, Gadelha immediately capitalized, pushing Casey to the cage with a flurry of punches. Although Casey eventually regained her bearings, that didn’t keep Gadelha from taking her to the mat and closing out the fight with a near-mount and arm-triangle attempt.
Gadelha gets back to the win column after a loss to champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk in her previous outing, while Casey sees a two-fight streak snapped.
Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 100 results include:
- Claudia Gadelha def. Cortney Casey via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Krzysztof Jotko def. Thales Leites via unanimous decision (29-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Kamaru Usman def. Warlley Alves via unanimous decision (29-27, 30-26, 29-28)
- Sergio Moraes def. Zak Ottow via split decision (29-28, 27-30, 27-30)
- Cezar Ferreira def. Jack Hermansson via submission (arm triangle choke) – Round 2, 2:11
- Gadzhimurad Antigulov def. Marcos Rogerio de Lima via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 1:07
- Johnny Eduardo def. Manny Gamburyan via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 0:46
- Luis Henrique def. Christian Colombo via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 3, 2:12
- Pedro Munhoz def. Justin Scoggins via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 2, 1:55
- Darren Stewart def. Francimar Barroso via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 1:34
For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 100, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan and Fernanda Prates contributed to this report on site in Sao Paulo.)
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