No. 5 ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s strawweight Jessica Andrade could see action as early as next month. “Bate Estaca” made her 115-pound debut after getting choked out by Raquel Pennington. She earned a TKO win over Jessica Penne and followed that up with a first round submission victory over Joanne Calderwood.
Andrade was set to compete at the final UFC event of 2016, UFC 207. She was ready to meet Maryna Moroz, but Moroz went down with an injury. Angela Hill stepped in, but due to the U.S. Anti Doping (USADA) guidelines, Hill couldn’t compete because she needed to re-enter the testing pool.
“Bate Estaca” spoke with MMAFighting.com and vented her frustration over not finding an opponent:
“It was bad because I prepared for a long time to fight at UFC 207. That was a great card with great fights, and I believe my fight would be great too, but unfortunately it didn’t happen. When you become a good fighter, your opponents start to be afraid of you, so it’s hard to find opponents on short notice.”
Many fans were surprised when Andrade’s manager, Tiago Okamura, revealed that his fighter turned down a title opportunity against Joanna Jedrzejczyk. The Brazilian bruiser said it was the right decision to make.
“We get paid per fight and the longer I stay without fights, the longer I stay without getting paid. I have bills to pay. I believe in me and I know I would win, and then I would be prepared physically and financially to do a training camp to destroy Joanna without mercy.”
Ideally, Andrade would like to return on the Houston card in February. She has some opponents in mind.
“Any top 5 would be a good fight for me. Michelle Waterson or Karolina [Kowalkiewicz] would be good options, too. Or Angela Hill, the Invicta champion. Whoever they put in front of me, I’ll be focused and ready to win.”
