Dedé with black belts Dudu Dantas, Claudinha and Marlon / Text and photos: publicity
After a three-month stint in the USA, competing at tourneys and conducting seminars, Claudia Gadelha returned home to Brazil. Yesterday she became the latest black belt at team Nova União, along with young MMA standout Dudu Dantas, promoted by André Pederneiras.
At just twenty-two years of age and undefeated in MMA with six wins on her record – five by submission – Claudia reported to be in contact with the Strikeforce promotion and is waiting on word of her international MMA debut.
Meanwhile, she promises to concentrate only on Jiu-Jitsu and head at full force into the big tourneys in 2011.
“This year my plans with Strikeforce didn’t work out. As they don’t have my division there yet, I’ll focus my efforts on Jiu-Jitsu. I’m going to train hard and compete at all the events. I’ve only been training Jiu-Jitsu for four and a half years and I had to set it aside a bit because I got involved with MMA. But I know that there’s no free meal in the female black belt division, all the girls in all the divisions are tough, very evenly matches, so I plan to train a lot and show up in great physical condition to always be in the running for top spot,” she said.
“I’d like to thank my masters he introduced the gentle art to my life and got me to where I am. I owe it all to Jair Lourenço, Robson Pinheiro and André Pederneiras and my physical conditioning coach Giulliano Massaras, who has gotten my physical conditioning to evolve more and more, and Bruno Bastos for the opportunity he provided me just now in Dallas,” she says in closing.
