Jessica
Andrade made history in her first strawweight bout since
2020.
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Andrade became the first fighter in the promotion to win a bout via
standing arm-triangle choke when she used the manuever to submit
Amanda
Lemos in the opening round of their headlining bout at UFC
Fight Night 205 on Saturday. “Bate Estaca” had to endure some
damage on the feet to close the distance against Lemos, who entered
the bout on a five-bout winning streak, but that was all part of
the plan. Andrade was just able to put everything in motion a
little bit sooner than expected.
“We knew how dangerous she was, especially in the first round. We
were very much aware of it,” Andrade said at the post-fight press
conference.
“The plan was to tire her out in the first round, maybe second
round, so then I could take over in the third. Luckily that
happened. I knew that she was going to hurt me, and I had to be
cautious about it in the first round, but as soon as I get close
quarters I knew she would be worried about it because girls get
scared when I get to close quarters, and that’s what happened. The
moment I connected with her, she put her arm up and I knew, ‘That’s
it.’ That’s what we’d been planning all week.”
Andrade is realistic about her standing at strawweight. She knows a
title shot may be at least a fight away but believes there are
other interesting options in the division. She’s also open to
fighting at flyweight or bantamweight if the right opportunity
arises.
“I think this is a big win,” she said. “We were aware that going
into this one, I was ranked No. 10, so I couldn’t really expect to
be a title challenger right away. But it was also on my mind that,
maybe if we do something different, if we have a devastating win,
if we really do something outside of the norm, maybe, who knows.
It’s a tough division. There are a bunch of girls ahead of me.
Maybe we can get the conversation going.
“No matter what, I want to keep active if the girls are fighting
right away – Joanna [Jedrzejczyk] and [Zhang] Weili. If I can fight
someone there it would be great. Hopefully, it could be soon,
because they’re fighting next month. But if that doesn’t happen, if
there’s something good at flyweight, I don’t mind fighting there.
If there’s something interesting at bantamweight, I’ll fight there.
It’s all good. Just keep me ranked everywhere, and I’ll fight
whoever’s in front of me.”
Andrade acknowledged, however, that her best chance for success
lies at 115 pounds.
“I had two rough weight cuts in my last fights at strawweight, and
that is what prompted me to fight at flyweight,” Andrade said.
“Things weren’t going well, my head wasn’t in a good place. It was
a little traumatic, the last two ones I had. So we decided to just
take a break. Let’s give it some time, let’s do something in a
weight class above. Let’s just remove weight cutting from your mind
for a little bit.
“As well as things went at flyweight, strawweight is where I’m
going to excel at. I know I can to do well at flyweight, I know
that I can beat a bunch of girls at bantamweight. But if I want to
be champion again, strawweight is the place to be.”