Invicta FC 6's Gadelha may get back to law – but for now, fighting is her future

One day, Claudia Gadelha might wind up doing something a little more business suit-y. Or maybe she’ll be working for Brazil’s police force.

But right now, she’s enjoying being a one-woman force of her own. Gadelha (10-0) makes her Invicta Fighting Championships debut today against Ayaka Hamasaki (9-0), and she’ll be hoping to stay unbeaten.

Gadelha was in college studying law, but she put her studies on hold and made fighting her top priority. It hasn’t turned out too badly yet. But it was an interesting start to things.

“Actually, when I started fighting MMA, I didn’t know how to box,” Gadelha told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I was spending a lot of my time studying law in college. I didn’t have a lot of time to become well-rounded. I used to only train wrestling and jiu-jitsu. Then I started to learn striking from Giovanni Diniz and Johnny Eduardo at Nova Uniao. By my fourth or fifth fight, I was able to hold my own when striking.”

And by her ninth fight, this past September at Shooto Brazil 34, she finally got a stoppage with her hands after six submissions and a pair of decisions.

Gadelha in May picked up a unanimous decision win for her third straight after returning to action from a lengthy injury layoff that required surgery.

Of late, Gadelha has been trying to get a fight booked with Carina Damm.

“She challenged me on many occasions,” Gadelha said. “She said I wasn’t a real fighter, that I was a product of the media. But she doesn’t know my story. She doesn’t know where I came from or what I went through. She claimed she would drop down to my weight. It was going to be a fight for honor – though nowadays, maybe that fight isn’t even worth the effort since her career is on the downslide. If I were to defeat her, it would be a victory over someone at the end of their career. I would still face her, though, because she talked a lot of trash. I didn’t like it.”

Maybe that fight gets put together and some point. Just like maybe Gadelha gets back to her studies at some point.

But right now, infront of her is Hamasaki and the chance to stay unbeaten on the biggest stage yet of her pro career.

“I’d like to work with the federal police,” the 24-year-old said. “But I want to have my fight career first since my opportunity is now. My college will allow me to resume classes at a later time. It’s a plan for the future. I’d like to stop fighting around age 28. And then I’d go back to college and finish my studies.

“(Right now), my whole life revolves around fighting.”

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