Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. Jessica
Andrade is ready to become the first female fighter to compete
in three Ultimate Fighting Championship weight classes
on Saturday, and she is willing to move around the divisions
depending on her options. Gilliard Parana, the head coach of PRVT Girls, spoke with Sherdog
about Andrade’s upcoming fight against the #1 ranked flyweight
contender Katlyn
Chookagian this weekend.
“Last time in Abu Dhabi [at UFC 251], Jessica faced the hardest
experience of her life to reach the limit of strawweight division
due to a series of factors like jet lag, local temperature and also
the fact that Jessica’s body is getting old,” Parana told Sherdog.
“Actually, she is only 29, but her body already faced 28 battles
[so] of course it’s getting harder to lose weight.”
Parana believes that moving the whole PRVT team to Las Vegas in
2021 will be a turning point to the success of Andrade’s future
plan.
Speaking highly of his top fighter, Parana said, “She is a
specimen. Strawweight title and all the wins she got was without
taking any supplements, diets or anything. Imagine when she gets
all the support of UFC [Performance Institute] in Vegas. I can
guarantee that Jessica will be the only girl accepting to fight in
three divisions [of strawweight, flyweight and bantamweight].”
One of the best students of Diovani Aparicio, creator of Brazilian
Impacto Team – arguably one of the bigger rivals of
Chute Boxe in Curitiba, Brazil — Parana took 18 Vale Tudo
fights between 2003 and 2014. The PRVT head coach won 12, with five
knockouts and seven submission to his credit, and he wanted to pass
along his hard-charging style to his students.
“Everybody in my generation in Parana had a big influence of
Wanderlei
Silva, so our main goal was always attack,” Parana admitted.
“Of course, Jessica suffered a great influence of my aggressive
style too, but the sport evolved and she is getting more tactical
and adding more tools to her game each fight. And you will see that
against Chookagian. We are aware that she has seven inches reach
advantage over Andrade, twice what Namajunas had, but Jessica has a
game plan to neutralize that.”
Parana believes that if Jessica gets the win Saturday, UFC will
give her the title shot against the dominant force of Valentina
Shevchenko.
“UFC is having a hard time to find opponents to face Valentina,
Jessica is the opposite, she is eager to fight her. Of course, a
challenge between a former strawweight champion and Valentina would
sell a lot.”
Andrade’s master also talked about possible future strawweight
battles between two women who already defeated his student,
claiming, “I believe Namajunas is totally [the betting] favorite
and, if she wins [against Weili Zhang
in a future title fight], I truly hope [the] UFC makes a trilogy in
five rounds with Jessica for the belt. There is no way Namajunas
beats Jessica in a five-round fight.”
Parana not only guaranteed a five-round win against Namajunas, but
also lauded a rematch down the line against 115-pound queen
Zhang.
“Fight is fight, anything can happen, but I see Jessica superior to
[Zhang] everywhere: standing up, in the cage clinch game and also
on the ground. Anyone who sees the video can see that Zhang used
elbows [to the back of Andrade’s head]. I believe those were not
intentional but they were clearly illegal blows. But we don’t want
to give any excuses we just would like to see that fight happen
again.”
Parana was very excited about moving his team’s headquarters to Las
Vegas next month.
“Vegas is the mecca of world MMA. We are moving with 10
professional fighters of the team in 2021. PRVT Girls is already
the biggest female MMA team in the world, where all the girls train
together, and I’ll be glad to welcome more American girls to our
family,” the coach concluded.
UFC Fight Night 180 takes place on Oct. 17 at the Flash Forum
in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where it will be headlined by a
featherweight thriller between Brian
Ortega and Chan Sung
Jung. The Andrade-Chookagian match has been elevated to the
co-main event after the Ciryl Gane
vs. Ante
Delija bout was cancelled due to contract issues.
