Claudia Gadelha wants to give back to the sport that has changed her life.
This Saturday night (June 3) at UFC 212, Gadelha will go one-on-one with fellow former title challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz. Gadelha will be the hometown favorite as the bout will be held inside the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The spotlight was always shining bright for “Claudinha.” She had a rough road early on in her life. In a new video titled, “Big Dreams, Fighting for the UFC,” Gadelha talked about humble beginnings:
“I’m from a little town in Brazil. It’s tough to have a good life there. I had a lot of big dreams and when I started fighting for the UFC everything happened.”
Gadelha is grateful for having her fortunes change for the better. She wants to help those who were in the situation she was once in.
“I feel like martial arts changed my life. I learned all about respect, dedication, discipline. I don’t know what I would be today if I didn’t get into martial arts. I really feel like I have to give back to the sport everything the sport gave me. So I opened up a gym in New Jersey. There’s two gyms, there’s my gym and an affiliate gym.”
