Jessica Andrade ready to take on all comers in return to strawweight

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.