Ultimate Fighter 23’s finale is headlined by a rematch between two of the best women in the world.

When Joanna Jedrzejczk and Claudia Gadelha met for the first time it was only their second fight in the UFC. Both were highly regarded undefeated prospects in the growing women’s strawweight division. The winner would go on to challenge Carla Esparza, the inaugural women’s strawweight champion that took the title by winning her season of The Ultimate Fighter.

Joanna won the fight that night, and her three subsequent fights. With lightning quick kicks, tight punches and aggressive flurries Joanna has cemented herself as one of the best strikers in all of mixed martial arts.

Since losing to Joanna, Gadelha has won her only fight. On the feet the Brazilian fights like a typical Nova Uniao fighter, using a solid jab and some clean low kicks. Although, Gadelha does her best work on the ground and she is constantly coming forward behind her strikes looking for the takedown. Gadelha’s grappling is relentless, as she will shoot from outside or just drag her opponent’s down in the clinch.

Their first fight ended in a hotly contested split decision, and bad blood has boiled between the two. Like the last fight, this matchup is predicated on who can keep it in their wheelhouse longer.

The difference in their strengths goes far beyond the old “striker versus grappler” sentiments. They both have effective striking and grappling techniques, but their end goals are far different. Gadelha’s striking is done to batter women, but ultimately she is striking to secure a takedown or enter the clinch. Joanna’s striking is made to slice away at her opponent’s reserves over time while discouraging grappling, and her grappling is designed to allow for more striking.

Forward Pressure, For What?

Joanna’s jab and cross are fast and accurate, but over the course of the fight they rip people’s flesh to shreds. Gadelha’s straight punches are still relatively hard, but they thud instead of snap. Gadelha uses those heavy punches to advance on her opponents, knocking them around in the process.

In Gadelha’s last fight against Jessica Aguilar, she left her foe bloodied and beaten up by the end bell, primarily due to her bull-like power. Like the bull she is, Gadelha will chase after her foes with her head forward and plenty of momentum behind it.

In the sequence below Gadelha lands a hard jab that makes Aguillar stumble back. The two reset off of one another, staring each other down. Gadelha senses an advance from Aguillar and throws a cross to intercept her. Gadelha misjudges the timing, Aguillar steps back from the Brazilian and Gadelha’s cross falls short.

No massive damage was done from either of these women, but Gadelha showed the flaws of her stance and forward pressure style.

Gadelha stands very heavy on her lead leg, leaning her head forward ahead of her hips. With so much weight placed on the lead leg it becomes very difficult to check or evade leg kicks. What’s more, Gadelha’s forward chin position puts it on a silver platter for front kicks and uppercuts, as both of those strikes split the guard from a hard to notice angle. Unfortunately for the challenger, all of those stance issues play into the champion’s hands.

Check out this beautiful striking sequence from Joanna’s first title defense against crafty grappler Jessica Penne. The two are circling with Penne trying to get off of the cage. Penne then initiates a charge leading with her right hand but Joanna steps back and counters with a quick check hook to stop Penne’s advance. The challenger then throws out a jab that Joanna easily avoids before the two square off again. During the lapse of action Joanna throws a quick right leg kick to chip away at Penne’s legs. Penne advances once more, this time behind a right straight-left hook combination, but again she is countered by Joanna’s quick left hook. As Penne attempts to make the best of a bad situation by securing a clinch Joanna launches a right uppercut at Penne. Before the two hit the fence Joanna digs an underhook with her left arm to avoid getting pushed around.

Notice how Joanna gives her opponent room to run in only to reset her own feet for a counter strike. That could be a nightmare against the forward pressure heavy Gadelha. Compound that with Joanna’s tendency to flick up leg kicks whenever she has the opportunity to eat away at her opponent. Those leg kicks add up over time, and against a grappler like Gadelha they end in an inability to shoot.

So where Gadelha is looking to throw straight punches while moving her opponents backward to get a hold of them, Joanna is perfectly happy to counter with quick punches. Although, Joanna’s best work comes after she has an opponent froze on the cage.

After battering Penne for the better part of two and a half rounds, Joanna kept her opponent’s back on the fence with active hands. Whenever Penne would cover up Joanna would flurry, but when she would try to escape Joanna would meet her with strikes.

Below Joanna steps in with punches, giving Penne room to exit to her left. Penne takes the opening and tries to shuffle out, but she is met with a hard right high kick from the champion that stops her circling. Joanna gets in front of her prey again and throws a right leg kick to keep Penne squared up with her.

Control in Close Quarters

This is probably where you’re thinking, “To beat Joanna, you just need to grapple. You need to wear Joanna down in the clinch, tire her out, take her down and then you’ll submit her. At the very least you’ll win a decision.” If it were that easy everyone would be doing it.

Joanna can’t be taken down purely out in the open as she keeps far too much distance between her and her opponent. Instead of reaching her hips, fighters will come up short on shots as Joanna slides away with counter punches. Joanna has proven her takedown defense in the clinch on the fence too good to be outworked from that position alone.

Below Penne is using double underhooks to manipulate Joanna’s spine as the latter keeps walking her hips backward. With a few inches of space Joanna pushes Penne’s face away with her left hand before attempting a tight elbow. Penne relentlessly digs deeper underhooks and even locks her hands being Joanna’s back. Finally Joanna pushes off of Penne’s face with both of her hands to kill the challenger’s forward pressure. With room to work Joanna lands a better left elbow before the two disengage.

To write Gadelha off this quickly would be disrespectful and borderline idiotic. What Gadelha has in spades is powerful, relentless grappling.

More often than not, Gadelha mauls girls in the clinch. Gadelha is too strong and technical for most women to deal with, and she uses wonderful body locks to manipulate her opponents’ spines to drag them around the Octagon. While Joanna was able to counter many of her clinch maneuvers, Gadelha got Joanna to the ground more than any other girl.

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When women try to simply dig underhooks on the cage with the champion, Joanna gets her hips out and fights the head off at all costs. As demonstrated above, Joanna is constantly pushing her foes’ faces away while moving her hips out to avoid getting pushed around in the clinch.

As mentioned earlier, the problem with shooting on Joanna lies in moving past her long, rangy strikes. Because of Joanna’s jabs and front kicks, most women simply end up on the end of her strikes for the duration of the fight. Once you’re inside of her range, Joanna’s deep stance lends itself to being snatched up with shots.

Above we see Gadelha counter Joanna’s striking with an intelligently timed shot. Joanna throws a right hand at Gadelha, but with Joanna’s feet planted Gadelha is able to secure her hips with a high double leg. After driving Joanna to the fence Gadelha tries to lift her opponent, but Joanna avoids the takedown with a quick fence grab. Gadelha seizes the moment and digs a solid underhook on Joanna’s outstretched arm. Using her advantageous position of leverage, Gadelha lifts with her underhook while twisting Joanna’s spine, resulting in a takedown for the Brazilian.

Transitioning between striking and grappling is where the rubber meets the road in this match-up. No women is going to beat Joanna strictly striking, as her Muay Thai is too fast and damaging. Grappling won’t work either as Joanna won’t play with women on the ground, and her clinch work is too effective to be taken there. To beat Joanna a woman has to be patient and focus on countering her strikes with takedowns and grappling.

In the fight between Gadelha and Joanna, I’d like to see the challenger play a more conservative game. Joanna’s last opponent, Valerie Letourneau, made the champion look relatively pedestrian on the feet due to her careful approach.

Gadelha would be wise to make the champion come to her and extend her combinations. Once Joanna has committed to planting her feet and punching, Gadelha needs to opportunistically shoot to get the fight in her wheelhouse. Once she has her on the ground, Gadelha needs to kill time, chip away at Joanna’s endurance and steal rounds. Then can she take a decision, or even finish her if the opportunity presents itself.

For Joanna, the game plan is much more straight forward. Use the jab to keep Gadelha away, add the uppercut to punish the Brazilian for shooting and dipping her head, throw low kicks between combinations and when the Brazilian steps. Add in a front kick or two to take advantage of Gadelha’s forward leaning stance and Joanna has a recipe for success.

I had Joanna winning the first fight, and thought it was trending her way. As the rounds wore on, Gadelha was slowing, and Joanna was throwing short combinations between grappling exchanges. Either way, the first fight was close, and I’m extremely excited for the rematch between two of the best women in the game.

Ultimate Fighter coaches Joanna and Gadelha will finally get to rematch after suffering through a long, drawn out rivalry. It will be interesting to see which women employs their game plan better, as the two could not be more dissimilar in their tactics. Come back to Cage Pages after the fight for more Ultimate Fighter and MMA coverage.