The victor of the very first Ultimate Fighting Championship strawweight
fight is hanging up her gloves.
The automated UFC roster tracker on Twitter named UFC
Roster Watch noted on Friday that Claudia
Gadelha had been removed from the UFC roster. Those
announcements do not necessarily mean that the fighter has been let
go, but rather that they are ineligible for rankings or are
otherwise pulled due to inactivity. In this case, as later
announced by MMA
Fighting, Gadelha had indeed informed the UFC that she would be
retiring from competition. She has since confirmed this news on her
Instagram
stories, thanking people for their support.
The 33-year-old from Mossoro, Brazil, last competed in November
2020, when she took on Xiaonan Yan
and lost a unanimous verdict. The setback ended a two-fight win
streak where she beat Randa
Markos and Angela Hill
at the hands of the judges. Throughout her UFC tenure, she has
defeated the likes of Carla
Esparza, Karolina
Kowalkiewicz and Cortney
Casey, to name a few.
Gadelha made her debut with the organization as part of the first
115-pound fight in company history, when she took on Tina
Lahdemaki and won by decision. Undefeated at that point with
names on her ledger including of Ayaka
Hamasaki, Herica
Tiburcio and Valerie
Letourneau, the 12-0 fighter then faced off against future
champ Joanna
Jedrzejczyk and dropped a close split decision that
most felt she won. Coming back to rematch Jedrzejczyk by
beating Jessica
Aguilar, she again fell short to Jedrzejczyk this time for the
title, in clearer fashion after a “Fight of the Night” battle. She
never fought for a belt again.
“Claudinha” will leave the sport with a UFC record of 7-5, having
faced most of the toughest opponents the division had to offer. She
has yet to make a statement on what her future plans entail, while
on Thursday, she was working with fellow
female UFC greats on an unknown project. She currently
maintains a subscription-based private “VIP” page through
the FanTime service.