LAS VEGAS – Claudia Gadelha says she’s ahead of schedule following a recent knee surgery and hopes to get back in the octagon in September for a rematch with Carla Esparza.
Gadelha (16-3 MMA, 5-3 UFC) beat Esparza (13-5 MMA, 4-3 UFC) by split decision at UFC 225 in June, but there was no shortage of post-fight drama between the rivals, who had been building toward a matchup for several years before finally sharing the octagon.
Not only did Esparza believe she was the rightful winner, but she also accused Gadelha of greasing in the strawweight bout. Gadelha has already dismissed the greasing accusation, but she does appear open to the idea of a rematch.
Gadelha suffered her knee injury just a week before UFC 225 and said much of her game was immobilized because of it. But with her recovery coming along and the UFC hosting an event in Sao Paulo on Sept. 22, Gadelha sees an opening to run it back.
“We’re talking September, maybe a rematch with Carla in Brazil,” Gadelha told MMAjunkie. “I’m still in shape. I feel good, I just need to take care of my knee. If I can get healthy then I can fight her in September again.
“(I don’t need to) prove a point, but I got hurt before the fight. … I wasn’t 100 percent. I had to keep taking her down because I couldn’t stand. I couldn’t put my weight on my right knee, so I had to keep taking her down and that’s all I did the entire fight.”
Gadelha, 29, gets great joy out of training, she said, so her current situation is a bit maddening. She’s roughly three weeks post-op but praised the workers at the UFC Performance Institute for making her recovery a smooth process.
Things are going so good, according to the Brazilian, that she may receive clearance for full training sooner than expected.
“I’m just going crazy because I can’t train,” Gadelha said. “I’m doing a lot of physical therapy at the PI now. I tore my meniscus and my LCL. They took a little bit of my meniscus, and it wasn’t a very hard surgery, but I can’t train for six weeks. But doing physical therapy at the PI, I think I’m going to be ready earlier than that. I’m taking care of my knee every day, and I’m trying to rush to get back on track.”
If the stars align, Gadelha said the rematch with Esparza in her native Brazil would be ideal. Gadelha is unhappy with her performance and the continued trash talk from the former UFC champ coming out of the bout, and she’s eager to prove that she’s superior to Esparza.
“I’m 100 percent sure that I won,” Gadelha said. “For me, it wouldn’t add anything, but it would keep me busy. She wants the rematch so bad, and I fought her with one leg because my knee was pretty bad. I would fight her again just for that.”
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