UFC names first Women's Strawweight fight for July 16 in Atlantic City

This afternoon, Marc Raimondi of Fox Sports reported that the UFC has booked the very first Women's Strawweight bout for UFC Fight Night July 16 in Atlantic City. It will be Brazilian Claudia Gadelha vs Finland's Tina Lahdemaki. Claudia was supposed to be in TUF20 but was pulled after Nova Uniao claimed that she wouldn't be able to make 115lb on the kind of short notice necessary for TUF. Nova Uniao has been very protective of her in the past and it was reported in Brazil several months ago that Claudia would not participate in TUF. She denied it at the time but it turned out to be true. I said at the time that I didn't think it was the real reason and I still don't think it's the real reason because of how Nova Uniao has tried to protect her in the past. That being said, Claudia has elite level Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Her record is 11-0 but only one of those fights was at 115. The rest were at 125. So my main doubts about her are can she make 115 consistently and is it an unhealthy cut for her. Remember her last fight in Invicta was cancelled when she got sick after weigh in. I don't have any doubts about her as a fighter. She's really good. But I don't like the coddling. Tina is from Pori, Finland. Her record is 5-0. But she hasn't fought outside Finland and she hasn't fought top level competition. And she took a 2 1/2 year break after two fights in 2010. She returned last year. Her best known opponent to date was Spaniard Karla Benitez. Karla is a kickboxer with zero ground game. Tina took her down and submitted her with an arm triangle choke at the end of round one. I've got the video of the fight so you can check it out for yourself. All of Tina's fights have been at 125lb. Though Claudia is younger than Tina, she has a lot more experience and has fought in front of international audiences. So I would favour Claudia to win handily. Enjoy the fight video.