“My Headaches Were Like a Knife Stabbing the Back of My Head” – Claudia Gadelha Explains Why She Retired From UFC

Former UFC strawweight title contender Claudia Gadelha recently called it quits.

One of the best strawweight Gadelha notified the UFC of her decision that she has decided to retire from MMA. Recently, she posted a video on Instagram to explain to her fans about the decision. In the video, she said, “In November 2020, after a fight, I had a really bad concussion, and I had post-concussion syndrome, which is the symptoms of concussion, for a long period of time.”

“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,” she added.

“So I took some time away from the sport and I started studying nutrition at IIN. Kind of fell in love with nutrition and with health and performance… I am a very energetic person, so I needed to do something else. I had to rush to the hospital in the beginning of my concussion twice. Ended up in the emergency room twice, and I’m here in Las Vegas by myself and my family is in Brazil.”

“Took a bit more time and went back to the gym and tried to train. I started getting hit in the head and having anxiety from getting hit in the head. And being afraid of going back to work, where I was in the beginning of the concussion. And then a lot of other opportunities showed up in my life.”

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What has Claudia Gadelha been up to since her last fight?

The Brazilian last fought inside the octagon back in November 2020. She lost her last fight to Yan Xiaonan via a unanimous decision. Gadelha entered the fight on the back of a two-fight win streak but couldn’t capitalize on her momentum. However, during her time away from the fighting, she was offered a job by the UFC.

While talking about it, she said, “The UFC offered me a job to work with the new talent, help fighters from Brazil. Translate for them and help them to understand a lot about the business side of fighting. And I was like, you know what, I think that’s a good thing for me to do.”

Even though she has decided to step away from the sport, according to her, she will not stop leading the life of an athlete. She said, “I’m not going to be one of those athletes that kind of retired and forget about everything they learned. I’m going to take all that knowledge I learned when I was competing to translate to other things in my life. Health, nutrition, and performance is one thing that’s gonna be with me for the rest of my life.”

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Gadelha fought for the UFC strawweight title and went toe-to-toe against Joanna Jedrzejczyk. The fight was awarded the ‘Fight of the Night.’