LAS VEGAS – It’s taken a few tries to make it happen, but barring an exceptional streak of bad luck in the next few hours, it seems Claudia Gadelha and Carla Esparza will finally square off. Gadelha (15-3 MMA, 4-3 UFC), who’s No. 4 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA women’s strawweight rankings , and No. 6-ranked Esparza (13-4 MMA, 4-2 UFC) meet on the FS1-televised preliminary card of tonight’s UFC 225 event at United Center in Chicago – more than five years after their first booking. The strawweights were first set to meet in January 2013, at Invicta FC 4, but a broken nose sustained just 10 days out forced Gadelha to withdraw. The meeting was re-booked for Invicta FC 7, in December of that year, but complications from the weight cut landed Gadelha in the hospital, and she wasn’t allowed to fight.
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