UFC veteran Claudia Gadelha broke into MMA at times where there were very few women parttaking professionally. This meant that she was used to facing up with men in mixed martial arts matches. The Brazilian even managed to sleep one of those bigger men.
It’s no secret that women on average are physically weaker than men. Which is why it’s very important to draw the lines when it comes to participation and why MMA has divisions.
Women on average have just half the upper body strength of men. And have around 70% less-powerful on the lower body compared to men.
However, martial arts experience can play a big role when it comes to the actual outcome. Which is why we see women win against men every now and then.
A highly trained woman has a decent chance to beat bigger men with no combat expertise. This was proven by former UFC strawweight Claudia Gadelha.
‘Claudinha’ was featured on a Brazilian variety show that was similar to Jackass. The show did a variety of challenges and one of them was a mixed martial arts matches between men and women.
The show put average middle aged men in a cage and at that time they had to face Claudia Gadelha, long before she focused to compete in professional mixed martial arts. Gadelha is a Brazilian jiu jitsu expert who trained out of the famous Nova Uniao gym where several legends including Jose Aldo used to train.
In those matches, Gadelha proved how useful BJJ is. The 33-year-old always had successful takedowns and controlled those middle-aged men on the ground. She also often submitted them and even managed to put one of them to sleep.
These matches were seemingly for fun but both sides were trying their best to achieve victory. It’s also good to test the effectiveness of BJJ when used against larger and stronger opponents.
Claudia Gadelha was one of the pioneers in UFC women’s flyweight division. She kicked off her professional career in 2008 and joined the UFC in 2014. The three-time BJJ world champion had a title shot against Joanna Jędrzejczyk but lost via decision. She eventually retired completely from MMA in 2020 and is currently working for the UFC to develop young athletes in Brazil.