TUF 23’s Finale showcased a rematch between two of the best women in mixed martial arts.

TUF 23 was the second Ultimate Fighter season with strawweight women competing. The strawweight coaches, phenoms Joanna Jedrzejczyk Claudia Gadelha, stole the show at the finale.

Going into the fight the narrative was an old obvious one, striker versus grappler. Joanna’s quick and clinical striking would be trying to slice up Gadelha before she could utilize her powerful grappling. In reality the fight was so much more than that.

Gadelha throws heavy punches and has left more than a few women battered. Joanna’s clinch work uses destructive elbows and well-timed knees to punish grapplers for even trying to work their game. Both women can work effectively in their opponent’s wheelhouse.

The real question was, who would make the best of their small openings? Who would seize the split seconds to score over time? Both women were going to get their licks in, so one had to make diamonds out of coal every time they were able to use their best weapons.

Now that the fight is over and the women have collected fight of the night bonuses I think it needs to be said that the meeting between Gadelha and Joanna was one of the best combinations of tactics and technique in all of MMA. Their rematch can not be labeled as simply one of the best women’s fights of all time. Joanna-Gadelha II will go down in history as one of the best title fights of all time.

There was no finish in this fight, although both women had their opponent hurt badly at different times. Amidst all of the talk of grappling versus striking, the bout ended up being a war of attrition. Joanna won that war by slamming front kicks into Gadelha’s abdomen at every opportunity available. Each front kick sapped Gadelha’s gas and undoubtedly played a part in her being winded at the end of the fight.

After spending the vast majority of the first round on her back Joanna was looking to get any type of rhythm going. Below see that the two are keeping a fair amount of distance between each other. Joanna doesn’t want to get taken down again, and Gadelha doesn’t want to run into any counter strikes. Joanna then resorts to using her longest weapon her front kick.

Notice how Joanna sets this up. The champion walks her rear foot forward shifting into a southpaw stance. When Joanna lifts her left leg, it looks as if she is going to simply take another step and shift into an orthodox stance. Instead Joanna lifts her left leg higher, snaps at the knee and pushes her leg forward through the hip. Joanna sticks a left hand out for good measure, but Claudia easily parrys the halfhearted jab.

Damage done, damage avoided, distance maintained and money in the bank. Any strike to the body will reveal its true damage later as the strikes accumulate. Knowing this Joanna rinsed and repeated her front kick at all possible opportunities.

Here we see Joanna walking Gadelha down at the end of round two. Gadelha is again maintaining a large amount of distance, but the champion is desperate to score after being controlled for a fair amount of the round. As Joanna plants her left leg mid-walk she uses her forward momentum to lift and extend her right leg to throw it as a front kick. After the right leg touches the floor Joanna looks to check Gadelha’s left hand to avoid a counter. Now in a switched stance Joanna throws a front kick off of the left leg and pushes away Gadelha’s face to avoid being dominated in the oncoming clinch. Joanna then uses a strong left underhook to push Gadelha to the fence just as referee John McCarthy calls the end of the round.

By the middle of the third round Gadelha was a shell of her first round self. She barely completed her takedowns, and Joanna immediately popped to her feet when they were on the ground. When Joanna was on top of the challenger with less than a minute and thirty seconds left in the round, Joanna walked away from Gadelha prompting a stand-up and a roar from the crowd. Instead of coming to fight her foe, Gadelha crawled to her feet but couldn’t walk away from the fence in time to avoid Joanna getting back in her grill.

The fourth round was essentially a striking seminar from the champion. Below Joanna paws with a jab out of a southpaw stance, and feints a kick with a twist of her hips. Joanna opts to kick the challenger’s leg due to her lack of response to the feint. Back to the hands now as the champion plays pat-a-cake by pawing with a few rights and a lazy left straight before slapping with the hook. The hook pushes Gadelha’s head toward Joanna’s left side, and the champion throws a sharp left straight to meet her head. Gadelha responds with a counter left hook so the champion backs out. With more distance between the two Joanna goes back to the front kick to freeze her opponent before throwing a hard inside low kick. Gadelha tries advancing after the kicks but Joanna extends her arms to push the Brazilian off of her.

With all of this being said the leg kicks were almost equally responsible for Gadelha’s fading.

In the lead-up to this fight we discussed the problems with Gadelha’s stance. The stocky Brazilian stands heavy on her front leg, making it harder to lift her leg to check kicks. Each kick absorbed makes it that much harder to push-off the ground to shoot and throw punches. After eating too many leg kicks fighters are essentially sitting ducks. In the case of Gadelha vs. Joanna, Gadelha was left absorbing strikes while unable to shoot for takedowns.

With this series we generally only focus on one maneuver and how it was set-up over the course of the fight, but there were so many beautiful techniques to take away from the event. In the clinch Joanna gave a masterclass on mitigating an opponent’s head pressure with pushing off and elbows.

To ignore what the challenger did in this fight would be disrespectful in its own right. Gadelha’s counter punches were coming hard and fast early in the fight. Hell, the Brazilian “grappler” dropped the striking master Joanna in the first 15 seconds of the fight.

What really caught my eye was Gadelha’s use of her left arm on the fence. Gadelha would hold Joanna against the wall alternating between using left underhooks and overhooks while softening Joanna up with punches from the right arm. When the opportunity struck, Gadelha would use her body control to wrench Joanna down to the ground. No one in the past has been able to do that to Joanna over and over again.

Just look at the control exhibited below. Joanna is attempting to inch her way backwards toward the cage to stand up. Gadelha is locking down Joanna’s right leg prevent her from getting her legs beneath her to stand up. With her left shoulder Gadelha is pressuring into Joanna’s face to break posture, and with her right arm she is grabbing Joanna’s left arm, preventing her from posting with it to get to her feet. As Joanna regains more rigid posture thanks to the fence, her left arm is acting more as a post beneath her now. Realizing that the arm is acting as a post, but Joanna is froze on the fence, Gadelha uses her right arm to smack Joanna in the face.

Going forward Gadelha would be wise take some time off to adapt her style to fit the limitations of her body. Loading up less on everything would do wonders for her cardio, and Gadelha already hits hard enough as it is.

Joanna has recently stated she intends on moving up to 125 as the cut to 115 is brutal for her. If the weight class becomes permanent I wouldn’t mind see Joanna take on Joanne Calderwood in the inaugural title fight at that weight class. In the meantime Joanna has a potential challenger in the making in Rose Namajunas. We’ll discuss that if Namajunas can get past Karolina Kowalkiewicz in her next fight.

TUF 23’s Finale is over and Joanna has further cemented her place in the history books. Hopefully with some time, the fire from rivalry between the two will die down. Keep your eyes around Cagepages for more fight announcements and analysis.