Claudia Gadelha‘s career has been marked by overcoming many struggles and adversities. The former strawweight contender for the world’s biggest MMA promotion was initially not allowed to train in martial arts, growing up in Mossoró, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. As a result of her rebellious nature and her parents granting her wishes, ‘Claudinha’ found solace in bad company and dr-g use. However, after moving to Natal, she finally had a chance to turn her life around by secretly training at age 14, and by age 18, she moved to Rio de Janeiro where she found BJJ and MMA. The rest is history. However, she failed to beat her biggest rival Joanna Jędrzejczyk, even losing the opportunity to win the title in her second outing against the Polish woman. Eventually, she retired from the sport in 2020.

In an exclusive interview with EssentiallySports, the former UFC strawweight opened up about how UFC head honcho Dana White helped her find her way after she experienced depression post retiring. With White giving her a job in the UFC, Claudia Gadelha is now focused on the development of young athletes in her native Brazil.

“He’s the most inspiring person in my network. He’s a mentor of mine, I get a lot of my life answers from him. Starting from my retirement to my next step, to rebuilding my identity.” said Gadelha to Andrew Whitelaw. She then spoke about how fighters end up losing their identity because of how it is tied to their professions of being mixed martial artists. Experiencing something similar, ‘Claudinha’ explained how it took her time to transfer the skills she learned as a fighting athlete to her life after retiring from MMA. She also tipped her hat to the UFC head honcho for helping her navigate her post-fighting career, for which she feels ever-grateful to Dana White.

“He was able to give me an opportunity to really sharpen the skills that I already had, you know? And I remember when I decided to retire from fighting, he was just like, ‘Just retire, you have nothing to prove. Like, look what you already did! Now go do something else with your life’. And I was like, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do’.  And he said, ‘You are going to do whatever you want to. Whatever you set your mind to, you will do it? And I was looking at him, trying to understand what he meant. Now I understand.”, ‘Claudinha’ further added.

Before retiring, Claudia Gadelha was an accomplished fighter with an impressive 18-5 MMA record. Infamously, she was paired alongside Joanna Jędrzejczyk on The Ultimate Fighter Season 23. Although her team ended up winning the show, she came up short in the finale, which was also her shot at the strawweight title against the then-Polish champion. After her title fight, she went on to rack up a promotional record of 5-3. However, she ultimately decide to retire due to health reasons. What exactly were these health concerns though? Let’s find out.

Claudia Gadelha’s health concerns that forced her to retire

“There are only three fighters that retired from an athletic career in the UFC, and [went on to] work in the UFC. One is Forrest Griffin, Big Nog who is over there in Brazil in the Athletic Development Department, and [number] three is me. And I am the only woman [fighter] ever that has worked for the UFC so I am honoured and grateful to be in that position.”, is what Gadelha told Andrew Whitelaw about her present disposition. The former strawweight fighter seems content with her role as a non-combative UFC employee, also because of how things turned out for her from a health perspective in the twilight of her career.

The former strawweight contender revealed after her last fight in November 2020 that she was suffering from concussions and post-concussion syndrome. It wasn’t just after her last fight, but ‘Claudinha’ revealed that she had been suffering for a while before her last fight. “So, I was suffering with the symptoms for a little while. It was very frustrating because my headaches were like a knife stabbing the back of my head. I was very nauseous, I was throwing up and feeling very, very bad. Couldn’t even go for a walk, couldn’t train. It was very frustrating.”, Claudia Galdelha said in an Instagram video.

It wasn’t just that, but also the fact that she was rushed to the emergency room twice, no less. In that light, she did the right thing by retiring, unlike a lot of fighters to continue to fight way past their prime like BJ Penn, and now, Tony Ferguson. At the end of the day, we’re glad she’s okay, and is living her full life raising the next generation of athletes in the UFC.