Claudia Gadelha: Aisling Daly is “not an athlete”

It was revealed last week that Aisling Daly’s scheduled opponent for UFC Fight Night 64, Claudia Gadelha, was forced out of the bout with a back injury. During a fan Q&A session at the now infamous event at the Convention Centre in Dublin yesterday, Daly discussed the recent hostilities between herself and Gadelha.

“There isn’t any beef, or there wasn’t,” Daly said. “She put a statement after she pulled out of the fight saying that I’ve been talking shit. I actually think he was just confusing me with Conor (McGregor). I’m sure Jose (Aldo) is sitting on the mat giving notes about the Conor tour and she got a bit confused and thought that was me. I honestly didn’t say anything.”

If there wasn’t any beef between the strawweights before, there certainly is now with Daly hinting that Gadelha pulled out of the fight to avoid being drug-tested.

“We were both due to be tested and she was gone,” Daly said. “Think from that what you will.”

The No. 2 ranked Brazilian has shot back at Daly, stating that she has passed tests for banned substances in all of her fights and attacking the Irishwoman for lacking discipline, being unfit, and failing to make weight.

“I was tested in every Invicta FC fight. I was tested in every UFC fight and I don’t have any problem with that,” Gadelha told MMAFighting.com. “Aisling said that because she’s not an athlete. I’m a better athlete, more disciplined. I train every day, several times a day, and I take care of my body. I believe she said that because I’m fit and she’s fat, she has that big belly. She doesn’t make weight, she’s not an athlete, and is talking shit.”

Perhaps Daly has taken a leaf out of teammate Conor McGregor’s book here in terms of psychological warfare as Gadelha certainly seems to be fired up in the wake of the SBG representative’s comments.

“I will fight her anytime, at any event she wants,” Gadelha said. “I want to fight and shut her up more than ever now.”

Gadelha may fulfil her wish to face Daly eventually, but for now she has been replaced by Randa Markos. “Ais the Bash” meets Markos later this month at UFC 186 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.