Claudia Gadelha
PHOENIX – According to UFC President Dana White, remorse is the thing that separates Claudia Gadelha from Paul Daley when it comes to after-the-bell punches in the octagon.
White said he was inevitably bombarded on Twitter after Gadelha (12-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) launched a punch that was blatantly illegal at the conclusion of her preliminary-card bout with Joanna Jędrzejczyk (8-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) at tonight’s UFC on FOX 13.
“Of course, everybody goes back to Daley,” said White at the post-event presser at Phoenix’s U.S. Airways Arena. “(They wrote), ‘You kicked Daley out for that.”
But the executive defended Gadelha on the basis that she behaved differently in the wake of her misbehavior than Daley, whom White released from contract immediately after he sucker-punched Josh Koscheck at UFC 113.
“The difference is this: When Daley did it to Koscheck, I was in there,” White said. “I went up to Daley, and … he didn’t care. He didn’t give a sh-t. He looked right at me and said he didn’t care.
“As soon as (Gadelha) did it to (Jedrzejczyk), she apologized to her. She said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ and she apologized. Those two had a war, they’re in the heat of battle, and (Jedrzejczyk) landed a kick, the bell rang, and then (Gadelha) hit her with a punch. And then she completely apologized for doing it. Totally different scenario.”
Gadelha’s anger turned to shock when the judges announced a split decision in favor of Jedrzejczyk, who remains undefeated at 8-0. The result appeared to nix the UFC’s plans to book Gadelha in a title bout with recently minted strawweight champion Carla Esparza, who won the title with a win on “The Ultimate Fighter 20.
Esparza and Gadelha were twice scheduled to meet under the Invicta FC banner and might have clashed on “TUF,” but Esparza withdrew from the reality show over concerns she could not repeatedly make the 115-pound limit.
Jedrzejczyk’s career is now on the upswing, but Gadelha won’t suffer any punishment for her post-fight punch unless the Arizona Boxing and MMA Commission, which oversaw tonight’s event, decides to pursue the matter.
For complete coverage of UFC on FOX 13, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
Filed under: News, UFC