Claudia Gadelha Wants To Be The Donald Cerrone of Strawweights

In an interview with MMA Junkie, Claudia Gadelha spoke about her aspiration to be the Donald Cerrone of the UFC women’s strawweight division but how she has failed to do that so far. Here are highlights:

On wanting to fight more often: “I intend to fight in September. I’m waiting for the UFC to get back to me. They’re trying, but it’s that same situation – I can’t find an opponent. It’s kind of annoying. Sometimes I wish I was the (Donald) Cerrone of strawweights. I wanted to get one fight right after the other. But I also understand that the men’s divisions have more options. And my situation at strawweight is very complicated. I wanted to fight again, I wanted to have a fight scheduled. I wanted to leave one fight with another one good to go, because that’s my goal in the division. But it’s hard. It’s complicated. There’s not much I can think or say, because all I can do is wait for someone to show up and want to fight. I’ve told the UFC multiple times that I’ll fight anyone in the division. It doesn’t matter who it is. I won’t handpick. But there are no opportunities, no options arising.”

On not training in Brazil: “I always tell my fighter friends who are still in Rio – it’s like you learn more. You absorb more when you’re not worried, or stressed out. When you’re focused solely on that. In Rio there was traffic, stress, problems with a bunch of things. Everything was expensive. I was worried about a variety of things that got in the way of my training. Sometimes I’d get to the gym upset or late. In Albuquerque, it’s a lot more relaxed. I wake up, have breakfast at a big home. Everything is good and a lot different than what I was used to going through in Rio, in Natal (city where she lived for three years) and Mossoro (city of birth). That makes all the difference when it comes to absorbing techniques and learning. Even in physical conditioning, you get more time to rest. You don’t spend so much time in traffic. The whole context is a lot easier abroad.”

On going to Rio hoping to get into MMA: “It was very hard for me. I arrived in Rio all by myself. I didn’t have anything. I had only a backpack, a gi and a bunch of dreams. I went to Rio wanting to be a fighter, but I didn’t have opportunities. I fought a lot of jiu-jitsu. I wanted to compete at MMA, but there were no opportunities. So I kept competing in jiu-jitsu, awaiting my shot until that first fight came. I was 18, and I loved it. But I made just enough money to get sneakers to train for the next fight. My purse was 300 reais (around $90.00 U.S.). It was very hard to support myself, to train, to eat well, and to fight. Everything was hard. Until I got opponents, and promotions that allowed women to fight – that was hard, too. I went through a lot of difficulties to be able to make it anywhere.”