Claudia Gadelha has revealed that she requires knee surgery following her narrow split-decision victory over Carla Esparza at UFC 225 last weekend.
In fact, it turns out that Gadelha was actually suffering from the knee issue before the fight even took place.
“I badly injured my knee, everyone at the UFC (Performance) Institute knows that because I was treated by the institute’s physiotherapist,” Gadelha told mmafighting.com. “(The physiotherapist) was the only reason I didn’t pull out of the fight. She said ‘I’ll take care of you.’
”I kept visiting the physiotherapist during fight week to be able to fight. I felt the knee in the first round, could barely stand, and still beat Carla in her game, wrestling, so I think she’s just mad she couldn’t outwrestle me.”
Gadelha will now be out for an unspecified amount of time after her surgery, but it seems that she’d be more than happy to give Esparza a rematch when she returns given the close nature of their bout last weekend – though she believes that without the hinderance of an injured knee she’ll enjoy a more emphatic victory next time out.
”If Carla wants a rematch, I don’t see any problem with that,” Gadelha said. “I’m sure I’ll dominate her even more because I dominated most of the fight with only one leg.”
”I think Carla is mad at me because this fight was supposed to happen for years, so she brought her best version. Her best version and me with one leg, I still won, so let her talk whatever she wants. If a rematch has to happen, I’m here.”
