Claudia Gadelha wants Joanna Jedrzejczyk rematch regardless of UFC 193 title fight result

SAO PAULO – Claudia Gadelha is eager to avenge her only career loss to UFC champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk, and she wants the opportunity regardless of whether the strawweight title is on the line.

Gadelha (13-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC) suffered a split-decision loss to Jedrzejczyk (10-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) at UFC on FOX 13 in December 2013 in what represents her lone career blemish. Twelve of 14 media outlets on MMADecisions.com scored the fight in Gadelha’s favor, and a rematch has appeared imminent ever since.

Jedrzejczyk is scheduled to put her title on the line against Valerie Letourneau at UFC 193 on Saturday in Melbourne, Australia. Gadelha believes the belt will stay put with the Polish fighter, but even if it doesn’t, she’s adamant she wants Jedrzejczyk to be her next opponent.

“I want to fight Joanna,” Gadelha told MMAjunkie. “Even if she loses the title, I don’t care about the title –I want to fight her. I think she will win the fight and the UFC said if she wins the fight and nothing happens to her, we will fight in February. I will fight her anywhere.”

Gadelha had expected to fight Jedrzejczyk following her unanimous decision victory over former WSOF champ Jessica Aguilar at UFC 190 in August. Unfortunately, she suffered a hand injury in the contest and was not prepared in time for UFC 193.

The 26-year-old originally anticipated the matchup to take place in December or January, but when the UFC reshuffled its schedule and put two women’s title fights with Jedrzejczyk and Ronda Rousey on UFC 193, it altered the plans of everyone involved.

“Joanna, after her last injury, she said she was going to be ready in December or January; so I got hurt (at UFC 190) and I said I’ll be ready in December or January also,” Gadelha explained. “Then they brought her to November and I don’t know what happened because she said she’ll be ready in December or January, not November.

“For November was not going to be good for me because of my finger was hurt. So I think what happened was because they tried to bring her down to Ronda’s card and she said she was going to fight on that card even though she said before that she was not going to be ready. That’s it, that’s what I think happened.”

Gadelha is set to travel to Australia to witness Jedrzejczyk vs. Letourneau in person. She expects Jedrzejczyk to leave with the victory and if asked, she’ll gladly step in the octagon to immediately challenge her rival face-to-face.

“I think Joanna will win because Valerie, she lose a lot of weight and she lose a lot of performance in that division,” Gadelha said. “So I think Joanna can win that fight pretty easy.”

“My challenge for her is already on. She knows I want to fight her already anyways. I’ll make that happen anyways. Even if they don’t want to make that happen, I’ll make that happen. So if they want me to get inside the octagon and challenge her, I will.”

For more on UFC 193, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.