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By Tony Reid

Claudia Gadelha doesn't like to talk trash—it's not in her nature. And honestly, she’s not very good at it. 

A proponent of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and martial arts values, Gadelha puts a premium on respect. In contrast, her rival, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, seems to enjoy every single second of the verbal sparring. The UFC Women’s strawweight champion and antagonist on the current season of "The Ultimate Fighter" provides a stark character foil for Gadelha both on the show and in the ring.

But Gadelha knows how to contend with outspoken rivals. As a result of her disciplined upbringing, she learned how to rub elbows without throwing them. 

“[Jedrzejczyk] always started it in the house,” Gadelha said. “I am always the one that gets the last word. I don’t know any girls like her. She likes to bully people. She likes to be on people. I don’t like that. I grew up with the BJJ philosophy. As a kid I was training BJJ. I learned how to respect you, to respect every child, every adult, every old person, how to respect coaches and trainers. I learned all that inside martial arts. That is my lifestyle. 

“When I see people who don’t show that respect, it really upsets me. That’s how Joanna is. She wants to talk sh** and she is very disrespectful. You never see me trash talk, but I had to do it with her because she was so vocal about it. She is trying to break one thing that is so serious in my life. Kids look up to you. You can’t be that b**** in the house.” 

Before their time together on set, Gadelha and Jedrzejczyk were already more than familiar with one another. 

The two scrappy strawweights went through 15 minutes of fire in the cage with Jedrzejczyk earning a razor-thin, split-decision victory on the judges’ scorecards at UFC on FOX 13 in December of 2014. The Poland native went on to claim and defend the women’s 115-pound divisional title, and Gadelha believes the sudden burst of attention has affected the current champion’s mindset.

“She says she’s the boss and I think something is in her head,” Gadelha said. “I think the fame might be getting to her. You can’t change when these things happen. She is the champion and parents wouldn’t want their kids to look up to her. They wouldn’t want their kids acting like that. I will have to show her how to be a champion.” 

Gadelha feels her hand has been forced with the repeated goading, instigating and bullying on "The Ultimate Fighter." Given their raucous rivalry, she has no problem throwing the shade right back in her enemy’s direction. 

“It’s hard to be around someone you will fight, someone you have fought,” Gadelha said. “It’s worse when that someone is a bitch. Joanna, I don’t know what’s wrong with her. She’s on you all the time. That’s why I said at the press conference that she must not be getting the right love from her boyfriend. If she was, she wouldn’t be that bitchy.”

While Gadelha cannot wait to get her hands on Jedrzejczyk at The Ultimate Fighter 23 Finale on July 8, her attack won’t be fueled by emotions. She wisely took notes on her legendary teammate Jose Aldo’s miscues early in his UFC featherweight title fight with Conor McGregor at UFC 194, where a 13-second K.O. loss wiped away a decade of dominance of the longtime champion. 

The approach and the loss cost Aldo dearly, and Gadelha won’t let history repeat itself in Las Vegas. 

“When we do get back in there and the door closes, I don’t want to take any of this inside the Octagon,” Gadelha said. “I don’t want to let happen to me what happened to my boy, Aldo. He had a lot of emotion in his fight. He is 100 times better than Conor McGregor but he was very emotional. I don’t want to be angry inside the Octagon. 

“When we get in there I will beat her. I will punch her in the face and I will do what I am training to do.”