Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Claudia Gadelha are two sides of the same coin. The UFC's yin and yang. MMA's Batman and Joker. They're the clear-cut No. 1 and No. 2 in their division, and only one can stop the other.
That made their fight at the finale of The Ultimate Fighter Season 23 quite the interesting matchup.
Jedrzejczyk has looked nearly unstoppable in her UFC career to this point. She took a decisive win over Juliana Lima in her debut, took the title by smashing Carla Esparza at UFC 185 and has defended her title twice in impressive fashion from Jessica Penne and Valerie Letourneau.
Her striking is almost beyond compare. Her frame is too long to contend with, and her sprawl-and-brawl style is perfectly suited to dominate the division. And she has demolished nearly every opponent she has faced.
The exception to all that is Gadelha. The two faced off in 2014 with Jedrzejczyk getting the win in a hotly contested split decision that showed Gadelha to be every bit Jedrzejczyk's equal, and the greatest threat to Jedrzejczyk's throne. She had both the physical tools and the overall skill set to defeat Jederzejczyk, and that made for an intense, entertaining rematch.
Friday's first round started with a bang, with Gadelha nailing Jedrzejczyk with a straight right hand and knocking her down. While Gadelha didn't attempt any ground and pound, she turned that into 90 seconds of dominant position. Jedrzejczyk recovered quickly and got back to range, but she struggled to deal with Gadelha's excellent clinchwork and upper-body takedowns.
The second round began right where the first ended, with Gadelha getting the better of Jedrzejczyk in the clinch. While Gadelha did little damage in the opening frame, she started landing hard shots on the ground and in the pocket in the second. While Jedrzejczyk managed to get some offense in during the final minute, she found herself definitively down on the scorecards.
Jedrzejczyk came out working hands at the start of the first, but Gadelha managed to land hard shots of her own and turned that into more clinchwork. After a few scrambles, however, Gadelha seemingly emptied her gas tank and began breathing with mouth agape. She still mustered up the energy to get some grappling in, but Jedrzeczyk was clearly the fresher fighter in the second half of the round.
At the start of the fourth, Jedrzejczyk knew she had the edge in conditioning, and she began pressing the action with jabs and bodywork. Gadelha put on a good facade of invincibility, but the round largely saw her plod forward into Jedrzejczyk's hands, which eventually gave way to Gadelha standing in place as Jedrzejczyk landed uncontested combinations.
I see a lot of Jon Jones in Joanna Jedrzejczyk's standup game. Elite fighter.
— Jonathan Snowden (@JESnowden) July 9, 2016
By the fifth, Jedrzejczyk was in total control of the fight. Gadelha continued to move forward, but her arms were too heavy to land counters, and her legs were too slow to turn things into a grappling match again. Jedrzejczyk continued to keep the pressure high and nail her with strikes, bloodying her up by the final horn.
The fight would reach the judges with the outcome unclear. Gadelha had decisively won the first two rounds, Jedrzejczyk the last two, with the third being competitive. Ultimately, however, all three judges broke in Jedrzejczyk's favor, with the scorecards reading 48-46, 48-46 and 48-45.
It was an amazing, gutsy performance by the still-reigning champ and one that gives her a clear path to a lengthy reign. While there are interesting potential opponents like Rose Namajunas and Joanne Calderwood, it's hard to imagine either being able to out-muscle her in the clinch or out-land her at range. While the strawweight division is deep enough that there will always be someone waiting in the wings to challenge her, the current slate of contenders just doesn't seem to have the tools to pull off a coup.
Gadelha, meanwhile, showed that she remains Jedrzejczyk's greatest challenge and the second-best fighter at 115 pounds. Unfortunately, it is incredibly unlikely that she can get another title shot without Jedrzejczyk first being defeated.
That, unfortunately, may take a long while.
