In one of the most dominant three-round fights you’ll see this year, former UFC women’s strawweight title challenger Jessica Andrade decisively bullied Claudia Gadelha last night (Fri., Sept. 22, 2017) at UFC Fight Night 117 live on FXX from inside the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Both women were vying for another shot at divisional champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk and left everything inside of the cage in the process.
After suffering an early cut on her forehead, Andrade unloaded absolute hell on Gadelha. She blasted her fellow Brazilian with powerful combinations from one side of the Octagon to the other, stalking Gadelha down and bloodying her face beyond recognition. Andrade even landed a slamming takedown so powerful that it temporarily cut off the cageside microphones (seriously).
While Gadelha nearly locked in a standing guillotine choke at the end of the second round, Andrade took over where she left off in the final frame and crushed Gadelha with ferocious ground-and-pound. It was really the first time fight fans have seen Gadelha get physically overpowered inside of the Octagon. Andrade was relentless in her approach and left nothing to the imagination, landing body shots, hammer fists, knees to the ribs, and sharp elbows en route to closing out her dominant unanimous decision performance.
The full fight video highlights can be seen above courtesy of UFC.
With this win, Andrade gets back some of the divisional momentum she lost in her defeat to Jedrzejczyk back at UFC 211. Gadelha was considered the consensus No. 2 fighter in the women’s strawweight division behind “Joanna Champion,” but Andrade obviously has done enough to steal that title away from her Brazilian counterpart entering 2018.
For complete UFC Fight Night 117 results and coverage click here.
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