Carla Esparza is convinced that Claudia Gadelha was greased up for their bout this past weekend at UFC 225 – and she wants a rematch to prove it.
Hey @ClaudiaGadelha_ i was never scared before and I’m certainly not scared now… rematch?@danawhite @Mickmaynard2 pic.twitter.com/vefgdG4K9P
— Carla Esparza (@CarlaEsparza1) June 11, 2018
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And just for the record, I would NEVER publicly accuse someone of anything unless I was 100% sure.
— Carla Esparza (@CarlaEsparza1) June 11, 2018
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Esparza went on the MMA Hour and said:
“It’s pretty shady to me,” Esparza said on the show. “I rewatched the fight, and my hands were slipping right off her. Even when I was trying to grab armbars during the fight, my arms kept slipping down.
“She’s a cheater, but it doesn’t really surprise me. In my opinion, she’s been a pretty dirty fighter throughout (her career), so it is what it is. … Claudia, you’re a cheater, straight up. It’s not cool. It is what it is, but it’s done with.”
Worth mentioning? Claudia Gadelha has been a bjj black belt for a number of years:
Gadelha responded to the allegations:
”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.”
She added:
”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.”
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