Carla Esparza believes Claudia Gadelha cheated her way to a split-decision win back at UFC 225. Esparza insisted that Gadelha greased before the fight and now regrets not informing a referee.
“She cheated in the fight; she greased before the fight,” Esparza told Ariel Helwani on the latest episode of The MMA Hour. “I was considering saying something to the referee in between [rounds]. I was going to say, ‘She’s greasing! She’s greasing’, but I didn’t really know how to go about it.”
Watching the fight over has only made Esparza more confident of her accusation.
“It’s pretty shady to me. I re-watched the fight and my hands were slipping right off. Even when I was trying to grab armbars during the fight my arms kept slipping down. She’s a cheater, but it doesn’t really surprise me. In my opinion, she’s been a pretty dirty fighter throughout, so it is what it is.”
Esparza talks about being on the verge of complaining to a referee at one point during the fight. She never informed her corner of the situation until after the bout.
“At the end of the second round, I was going to say something to the ref, but I didn’t and I kind of regret that. I don’t know how I would’ve gone about that. I’ve never been in that situation before. I do [regret not telling the referee]. I don’t know if it would’ve made a difference. Maybe they could’ve toweled her off, but I really don’t know. I’ve heard of people doing this over the years. But I never actually experienced it before.”