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Having suffered her second straight defeat to champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk earlier this month, Brazilian Claudia Gadelha currently occupies a land in previous times inhabited by the likes of Joseph Benavidez and Urijah Faber —the undisputed second best fighter in the division.



Despite these two losses in a row to the champion, Gadelha told MyMMANews earlier this week she believes she will do better when the two meet again while reflecting on what might have cost her the fight this time around.



“For my camp, I think I did more than I should," Gadelha said. "I did 17 weeks of camp for this fight and when I got inside the Octagon, I was still feeling pain from fight camp so I think I did more than I should. But, I learned from that and I’m sure next time I’ll do much better.”



Speaking in the immediate aftermath of her title fight loss, Gadelha said that while the belt was important to her, what was more important was the fact she knew she acted respectfully towards her opponent. Gadelha was adamant this wasn't something Jedrzejczyk could also claim.



“I don’t know what was going on in her head when she did the things she did on the Ultimate Fighter," Gadelha said. "Maybe she was only trying to sell the fight or things like that but you know, come on, you can’t be disrespectful the way she was. She disrespected not only me, but my coaches, people that I love so much, people that are with me for over 15 years, and I can’t accept her apologizing for that.



"If she had done something different you know, maybe disrespect me, it would be ok, but the way she did it was very disrespectful. Kids that were watching her, they don’t wanna be like her, and I’m sure their families, their moms and their dads don’t want to see their kids be a bitch like she was on the Ultimate Fighter."



Despite Gadelha not respecting Jedrzejczyk's attitude and lack of respect, the Brazilian was proud of the fight they had on the TUF 23 finale and was at peace with the performance she put in.



"I respect her [Jedrzejczyk] as a fighter," Gadelha said. "We did the best fight of the night, the night of the Ultimate Fighter and I knew that was going to be one of the best fights.



"A lot of people said it was the best fight of the weekend, so I’m very happy about that because I put all of my heart and energy inside of that cage, and not only inside the cage but in fight camp I did so much, I worked so hard to get in there and finally get it done.”



Having been through a long tough camp and grueling five-round fight, Gadelha's focus is now back on training others at her MMA & BJJ Academy in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.



"I want to see this gym growing so I will be here putting all my energy into this," Gadelha said. Same thing like I did in the Ultimate Fighter, I will be here, seeing people learning, seeing them growing up as fighters, students and fighters.



"I will be here for a couple of months and then I will go back to Brazil and I will see what’s next.”