Claudia Gadelha outstruck and outwrestled Jessica Aguilar tonight at UFC 190 to establish herself as undeniably the No.1 contender in the woman’s strawweight division.
Round One:
Both ladies looking to exchange early with Aguilar initating it. Gadelha with a knee. She connects with the jab too.
Hard left hands land for Gadelha and Aguilar lands a leg kick. Solid punches from Gadelha in the opening minute and she’s found her range quickly.
Aguilar looks to come in with a short flurry of strikes, but gets caught with a counter. High volume of strikes from both so far, but it’s Gadelha who’s getting the better of it thus far.
Gadelha with a big knee and a hook. Aggressive stuff from her. Gadelha gets through with a good uppercut.
Nice clean jab for the Brazilian. Now a short flurry. She steps in with another three-punch combo. Aguilar with a leg kick. Punches keep coming in return though. she’s not really landed anything to deter her opponent as yet.
Suddenly Gadelha moves in and lands a big takedown. She quickly latches onto Aguilar’s back. she opts to just hold the position rather than go all out for a submission finish in the final moments of the round. Aguilar bleeding from her nose as they go back to their corners.
Round Two:
Aguilar looks to start the round off with punches, but Gadelha counters hard. She’s tagging her again just as she did in the first round. Aguilar caught hard and hits reverse gear to get out of danger.
Gadelha follows up and has her backed up to the cage and then slams her down to the mat. Aguilar gets back up, but Gadelha still clinched up. Aguilar with a lot of blood coming from her nose, but she manages to reverse the position and lands a few knees.
Now Gadelha takes control in the clinch again, but they break apart soon after that. striking range again and Gadelha is back to landing lets and rights. She tries to go upstairs with a knee too, but it misses on this occasion.
Aguilar clinches for a moment and lands a knee. Gadelha with two strikes and one comes back in return from Aguilar. Again an exchange that Gadelha gets the better of. Aguilar back to the leg kick.
Gadelha continues to land the jab to Aguilar’s already busted up nose. Uppercut from Gadelha. Another follows. Aguilar with a left hook. she gets a leg kick too.
Aguilar presses forward with a flurry of lefts and rights. she lands low to the leg, but then in the final 10 seconds Gadelha charges forward and lands a takedown.
Round Three:
Left hook and a right from Gadelha lands straight away. Aguilar connects, but Gadelha lands a good knee.
Aguilar with a couple of leg kicks. Now another one. Straight punches from Gadelha and another kick from Aguilar. Gadelha blasts her with powerful punches.
Now it’s Aguilar who’s in on a takedown, really for the first time in the fight. It’s stuffed though and as they break free they both land right hands.
Gadelha connects with a punch and Aguilar goes back to the leg kicks. She really needs to finish this fight though.
Another leg kick and then a short flurry of punches. Left and a right land for Gadelha. More leg kicks score for Aguilar. Now a right hand gets through.
Swing and a miss from Gadelha. They both land punches and then Gadelha pushes her opponent away. Good connection on a few punches from the Brazilian and then as Aguilar responds with a kick, Gadelha gets a nice takedown.
Final 10 seconds of the round and Gadelha is working to her opponents back, but doesn’t have enough time to get anything going.
Decision:
No surprises here, Gadelha gets herself a unanimous decision victory (30-27 x3) and should now be on course for a big rematch with current strawweight champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk.
