Before locking down her opponent for April, former Ultimate Fighting Championship strawweight
champ Jessica
Andrade targeted foes from 115 pounds all the way to
bantamweight.
Despite being the top-ranked UFC flyweight contender, former
strawweight champion Andrade decided to return to her original
division. On April 23 at UFC Fight Night 205, she will take on
fellow Brazilian and 10th ranked Amanda
Lemos. In an interview with Sherdog, Andrade explained how she
made the decision to return to her old division.
“I was having a hard time finding opponents in the flyweight
division,” she said. “We tried Alexa
Grasso, even Miesha Tate
in bantamweight, but nobody wanted to fight with me, so my master
Gilliard Parana convinced me that in strawweight the amount of
possibilities would grow, making the matchmakers lives easier.”
According to “Bate Estaca,” the weight cut will no longer be a
problem.
“Brazilian food made the weight-cut process very hard for me,” she
admitted. “Since we moved to [Las] Vegas and started to use [the
UFC Performance Institute] to train, I started to follow
nutritionists, just eating the food they prepare for me, which is
making it much easier to reach strawweight stronger than ever. As
my master Parana says, I’m the queen of that division. ‘You beat
Rose via TKO in the first time, in the second she won via split
decision. The third one will, in five rounds, you will pass over
her,’ [he told her].”
Even having the trilogy with Namajunas as her main focus, Andrade
would jump at the opportunity to face Joanna
Jedrzejczyk or Weili Zhang
again.
“When I faced Joanna five years ago, I was a pretty instinctive
fighter,” the ex-champ explained, “I evolved a lot since then. I’m
sure I can bring a totally different fight both to her and
Zhang.”
Andrade revealed that her upcoming opponent Lemos was also
struggling to find opponents, which made her immediately accept the
UFC’s proposed matchup.
“Any fighter who denies UFC proposals will also have his requests
denied later,” Andrade noted. “I have a wonderful relationship with
UFC, whenever they needed me I was there and this time was no
different. Amanda is a pretty tough new talent, but my goal is not
to leave the fight in judges’ hands. I will win via submission or
knockout, and get a spot back on the top of strawweight ranking
again.”
When asked to choose a winner in the strawweight title rematch
between Rose
Namajunas and Carla
Esparza, Andrade pointed at the champion as favorite.
“Besides having a long range advantage, Rose has great takedown
defense; I see her winning [against] Carla via decision,” Andrade
analyzed. “By the way, Carla is another opponent in that division I
would love to fight. Actually, my name was already offered to her
and she refused.”
Even with her focus in strawweight gold, Andrade wanted to make
clear that UFC can keep counting on her.
“My main goal is to establish myself in the top of 115-pound
division, but UFC knows that if they need me in 125 or 135, I’m
also available. Being a fighter is [to] be ready [for] anything,”
she concluded.