Claudinha Gadelha Opts Out of TUF 20 Opportunity

The Ultimate Fighting Championship in December worked out a deal with Invicta Fighting Championship to acquire 11 of the all-female promotion’s 115-pound fighters.

In building its new women’s strawweight class, the promotion didn’t want to start from scratch, and the quickest way to hit the ground running was to bring over much of Invicta’s 115-pound roster, which already included many of the top women in the world in that weight class.

Among those fighters whose contracts the UFC acquired was Claudinha Gadelha. The Brazilian fighter, however, along with her camp, has decided that trying to make her way through The Ultimate Fighter house wasn’t the best route for her.

“As many already knew, 11 fighters were hired by UFC to participate in the TUF 20 and I would be among them, but together with my coach, entrepreneur and team decided that this would not be the way, since on TUF the athlete has only 3 days to beat the weight and I would suffer greatly contracted inside the House to keep me in the category,” said Gadelha on her Facebook page on Monday (via a Bing translation).

“So I won’t be participating in the next edition of the TUF, but it is with great honor that I inform you that I am employed by the organization and will be debuting soon.”

While the UFC was holding tryouts to fill the remaining TUF season 20 spots on Monday, one woman that otherwise was going to miss the cut, may now find a golden opportunity laid out before her.