For Claudia Gadelha, a change of scenery was necessary.
Gadelha is coming off a first-round submission victory over Karolina Kowalkiewicz at UFC 212. It was her second straight victory after her unanimous decision loss to Joanna Jedrzejczyk back in July 2016.
After her victory at UFC 212, Gadelha told the media that she had put her body under a considerable amount of stress before her rematch with Jedrzejczyk (via MMAFighting.com):
“I killed myself. I trained for 17 weeks in my camp, killing my body. I was destroyed, I couldn’t even stand up. I was killing my body. I’m that kind of Brazilian. I never give up, and I always give my best at all times. And sometimes giving your best is not the right thing. You have to follow the recipe or it’s not going to come out right. That’s exactly what I did in the second fight against Joanna.”
As far as making the move from Brazil to the United States, Gadelha said it was a much needed change.
“How do I see myself in the division today, I believe I’ve got the No. 1 ranking, at least on paper. Joanna is the champion. I have all the tools to beat her, but I needed to do what I did to reinvent myself, to be able to improve and to find what was missing in my game, as far as my cardio, my patience.”
