UFC 212 Results: The Real Winners and Losers from Aldo vs. Holloway Fight Card

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Claudia Gadelha is a great fighter. That's all there is to it.

Her opponent in the co-main event, Karolina Kowalkiewicz, had never been stopped in her pro MMA career. She had only lost at all on one occasion, to the current UFC strawweight champion, the great Joanna Jedrzejczyk. 

That's something these two had in common coming in, as Jedrzejczyk was the only fighter to defeat Gadelha, having done so on two occasions. 

So something, as they say, had to give. And give it did.

After an initial feeling-out period that saw Gadelha land a couple of nasty elbows after clinch breaks, Gadelha hit a takedown and went to work. Although Kowalkiewicz has taken pains to prove she's more than a kickboxer, she was clearly out of her element as Gadelha moved to take her back. 

Gadelha wrapped her arms around Kowalkiewicz's neck, got a rear-naked choke and elicited the tap. It was over in three minutes and three seconds.

What's next for Gadelha after such an amazing and efficient performance over such a formidable opponent? 

"I'm moving to [training home] Albuquerque [New Mexico], I'm getting a nice car and fancy dog," she told Stann in the cage after the fight. "That's all that's on my mind right now."

Well, then. But she was also candid about her own evolution as a fighter. And while Jedrzejczyk did not specifically come up, it's not hard to see how prominently the champion weighs in Gadelha's mind, no matter how much she might try to play it cool.

"You can't expect different results if you keep doing the same thing over and over," Gadelha said. "I challenge myself, I've done new things, I'm a new fighter, and I'm going to be f-----ng hard to beat here."