Claudia Gadelha Responds To Carla Esparza’s Greasing Allegations
Claudia Gadelha has reacted to the strong allegations made by Carla Esparza.
As seen on the preliminary card portion of Saturday’s (June 9, 2018) UFC 225 pay-per-view event at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois on FOX Sports 1, Gadelha was able to edge out a split decision victory over the former UFC women’s strawweight champion.
After the fight, Esparza accused the former title contender of greasing and that did not sit well with Gadelha, to say the least.
Now, Gadelha has fired back at the former champ by stating that she believes Esparza is making up excuses for losing the bout.
”I think Carla is trying to find excuses for what happened,” Gadelha said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “I badly injured my knee, everyone at the UFC (Performance) Institute knows that because I was treated by the institute’s physiotherapist. (The physiotherapist) was the only reason I didn’t pull out of the fight,” revealed Claudia.
“She said ‘I’ll take care of you.’ I kept visiting the physiotherapist during fight week to be able to fight. I felt the knee in the first round, could barely stand, and still beat Carla in her game, wrestling, so I think she’s just mad she couldn’t outwrestle me. She was supposed to be a high-level wrestler and that’s how she lost to me.”
Gadelha brought up the fact that the commission would not let greasing happen as they monitor the fighters from the time that they show up to the arena until you step into the Octagon.
”There’s an athletic commission with officials following you the moment you enter the arena up until the point you enter the Octagon, including inside the Octagon, checking if there’s something on your body. Come on, we’re in 2018, this greasing story is from Vale Tudo days, don’t know how many years ago. At this level, today, I don’t think it happens anymore,” she added, while saying greasing wouldn’t have helped her one bit when it came to her strategy.
”And by the way, my strategy was to grapple her. I’m a grappler. Why would I put something on my body to not be able to grapple? I was talking to my coach now, we have a list of things written on a paper, notes of things we planned doing in the fight, and grappling was the biggest part of my strategy. Why would I put something on my body? That makes no sense.”
