Ireland’s Aisling Daly meets Claudia Gadelha in Krakow
Dublin’s Aisling Daly will face Claudia Gadelha at UFC FIGHT NIGHT: GONZAGA vs. CRO COP 2 on April 11 in Poland. Tickets on sale Thursday February 26th
UFC® has today announced that Aisling “Ais the Bash” Daly will meet Claudia Gadelha at UFC FIGHT NIGHT: GONZAGA vs. CROP COP 2 in Krakow, Poland on April 11th.
Fighting out of Dublin, Ireland, Daly is currently ranked at No.9 in the UFC women’s strawweight division, while Brazil’s Gadelha is ranked at No.2.
This is the first women’s bout to be added to the stacked Krakow fight card, which is headlined by a five round heavyweight battle between Croatian Mirko “Cro Cop”Filipovic and Brazilian Gabriel “Napao” Gonzaga.
Daly today described her excitement at the prospect of competing at the UFC’s debut event in Poland:
“I asked Sean Shelby to be on the Poland card – I said ‘Can I have someone for that please?’ I wanted to fight in Poland because I just didn’t want to spend too much time out. I wanted to get back in there and be active. If you’re not active then you’re sliding down the rankings. There are so many of us in the division and if you’re not making noise, then you’re not getting noticed.”
But while Daly is delighted at the prospect of taking on the No.2 ranked female in her division, she is aware of the challenge that Gadelha presents:
“I think a lot of girls would shy away from her but I was really excited to get this fight. I didn’t think I would get offered a fight like this for a while so I was really happy to get Claudia.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a huge step up in competition but it is good for me to come up against somebody like her. In my mind, there are three of four of us in the division that are up there and she’s one of them. So I’m delighted – sometimes you get what you ask for!
“I know Claudia has a good record. She’s from Jose Aldo’s camp too so that’s obviously funny with Conor due to fight Jose. She has some good wins on her record, but a lot of her wins lately have been decisions. She’s good everywhere; she’s dangerous.
“I think she gasses though; she gets tired. Even in her fight with Joanna [Jedrzejczyk], she started to get tired by the end of the third round. So I’ll be looking to use that. I think we’re both going to be tested here.”
Daly, whose training partners include Conor “The Notorious” McGrgeor, Cathal Pendred and Paddy “The Hooligan” Holohan will prepare for the fight with her teammates back at SBG in Dublin:
“I’ll 100% be in SBG for this fight. SBG is the place to be. I’ve had other people even in my division asking me to come over and train at SBC. Even Joanna [Jedrzejczyk] asked if she can come over and prepare for her fight with Carla.”
With current UFC women’s strawweight champion, Carla “Cookie Monster” Esparza, back in action at UFC 185: PETTIS vs. DOS ANJOS on March 14th, Daly is hoping to be the next opponent in line to compete for the belt:
“A win over Claudia – I’m hoping it would put into title contention. She was going to fight for the belt if she beat Joanna, you know. They are short of title contenders after March, so me vs. Claudia puts the next title contender forward.”
Tickets to UFC FIGHT NIGHT: GONZAGA vs. CROP CO 2 will be available from Thursday February 26 via www.eventim.pl.
UFC Fight Club® members will have the opportunity to purchase tickets to on Tuesday 24 February at 10.00 GMT via www.ufcfightclub.com, while a special Internet ticket pre-sale will be available to UFC newsletter subscribers Wednesday 25 February starting at 10.00 GMT. To access this presale, users must register for the UFC newsletter through UFC.com.
