Long-time UFC strawweight fighter Claudia Gadelha has made the surprising announcement that she is retiring from the sport at 33-years-old.
There had been no indication beforehand that the Brazilian star bowing out from the sport was imminent, though she hasn’t fought in over a year since losing out by unanimous decision to Yan Xiaonan in November of last year.
Before that Gadelha had picked up back-to-back wins over Randa Markos and Angela Hill, which leaves her still ranked No.7 in the 115lb division at the time of her retirement.
Gadelha had entered the UFC back in 2014 after compiling a perfect 11-0 record on the regional scene and it wasn’t long before she was involved in an extremely competitive battle with an also up-and-coming Joanna Jedrzejczyk, which she’d lose by the narrowest of split-decisions.
The rivalry generated by that fight led to the two serving as team coaches on TUF 23 a year later, before they fought for the strawweight title, with Jedrzejczyk emerging victorious again by way of unanimous decision.
Gadelha has gone on to fight many of the top fighters in the weight class in the years since and overall bows out of the UFC with a 7-5 run in the promotion and an 18-5 career record.
