Exclusive: Carla Esparza: I Wanna Get Paid to Punch Cláudia Gadelha Again

Mandatory Credit: Esther Lin - MMA Fighting 

With three consecutive decision victories, inaugural UFC strawweight titleholder, Carla 'Cookie Monster' Esparza is fast approaching a summit which was once her own to claim. Naturally, the Californian is looking up the rankings for her next outing and floated the idea of an animosity filled rematch - stemming from a contentious 2018 decision.

At UFC 225 in June of that year. Esparza entered the Octagon opposite one-time title challenger, Cláudia Gadelha - off the back of two straight wins over Cynthia Calvillo and Maryna Moroz. Brazilian grappler, Gadelha on the other hand, had seen her two-fight rise halted by former champion, compatriot, Jéssica Andrade in the matchup prior. In a bou which received a split decision judging, Gadelha took spoils - not without some criticism from Esparza.

Both have reiterated their interest in rematching down the line - following the Brazilian's close decision triumph over Angela Hill, and Esparza's razor-thin judging against Michelle Waterson in Jacksonville. Esparza has claimed that during their UFC 225 meeting, she contemplated asking referee Rodrigo Madrigal to inspect Gadelha - who she believed had greased before the tie. Warranting a response, the Rio Grande de Notre native told Esparza to stop making excuses for the decision defeat.

In an interview with Colin Crandall from the MMA Power Hour - Esparza has stoked those flames once again, explaining how she wants to "get paid to punch Cláudia Gadelha in the face again" when discussing the motivation surrounding a split decision blemish.

"I guess I would say for me - I'm motivated to fight Cláudia (Gadelha) again, you know like, I don't like her," Esparza explained. "I wanna get paid to punch her in the face again. I guess what I learned from that is - again she pulled off another questionable split decision this past weekend [against Angela Hill]. Like you said, just gotta go for broke and go in with that finish, because for some reason she's getting those nods. I definitely plan to go in there and finish the job."

When discussing her next potential outing, Esparza explained how she's never the type to refuse a pairing - but further reiterated her interest to re-run her 2018 affair with Gadelha, in an animosity filled rematch.

"Honestly like, I've never turned down a fight in my whole career," Esparza told. "I'm not one of those picks and choose type fighters like, 'Oh I wanna fight this person or that person because it's an easy fight'. I've never been handed easy fights, I'm down to fight whoever, but if you ask me for a name, I wanna fight Cláudia. That's been a long time coming, and to me, that's the only fight in my mind right now."

With Gadelha currently sitting at #6, and Esparza at #7 in the official UFC strawweight pile - a rematch between the two in the not too distant future, could be a real possibility. Before her decision victory over Hill - Gadelha managed a unanimous decision win over Randa Markos, rebounding from a judging loss to Nina Ansaroff. Prior to her close victory over Waterson, Team Oyama trainee, Esparza secured a pair of judging wins over Alexa Grasso, and Virna Jandiroba last year.

Esparza and Gadelha were scheduled to meet at Invicta FC 7 - with the former's strawweight title up for grabs. The day before the pairing, Gadelha was forced from the tie after she was admitted to hospital, and diagnosed with gastroenteritis.







"I'm motivated to fight Cláudia again." (1 hour + 1 hour 19 minutes)