Former strawweight queen Jessica
Andrade is expected make her 125-pound debut against Katlyn
Chookagian at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on Oct.
17.
MMAjunkie.com was first to report the booking. Andrade was
originally linked to a matchup with Jessica Eye,
but that bout fell apart after Eye reportedly suffered an injury.
The card is expected to be held on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi and is
headlined by a featherweight duel between Chan Sung
Jung and Brian
Ortega.
After losing the 115-pound belt to Weili Zhang
in a 42-second TKO defeat last year, Andrade returned to the
Octagon at UFC 251, where she dropped a split decision against
Rose
Namajunas. Prior to that two-bout skid, “Bate Estaca” had been
victorious in seven of her previous eight promotional appearances.
When she makes her flyweight debut, Andrade will have competed in
three different weight classes within the Las Vegas-based
organization.
Chookagian, meanwhile, challened for flyweight gold at UFC 247,
where she suffered a third-round TKO loss to Valentina
Shevchenko on Feb. 8. She returned to the win column at UFC on
ESPN 9, earning a unanimous decision triumph against Antonina
Shevchenko on May 30.