Erin Blanchfield impresses in stunning submission finish of Jessica Andrade in UFC Vegas 69 main event
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, February 18, 2023, for UFC Vegas 69, going down live from the UFC Apex in Enterprise, Nevada.
Headlining the event is a women’s flyweight bout between no. 3 ranked former strawweight champion Jessica Andrade (24-9) and no. 10 ranked 23-year-old prodigy Erin Blanchfield (10-1).
Blanchfield was initially slated to face no. 1 ranked Taila Santos at this event. However, Santos was forced out of the bout one week ago and replaced by fellow Brazilian, and fellow former flyweight title challenger Jessica Andrade.
Co-headlining the event was a light-heavyweight affair between Jordan Wright (12-4) and The Ultimate Fighter 30 finalist Zac Pauga (5-1).
Reverting back to our main event of the evening:
Jessica Andrade had gone 4-1 over her last five outings, securing three finishes in that time. The decision victory in her latest performance was one of the worst beatdowns in women’s MMA history, a performance where she landed 161 heavy head strikes against fellow former flyweight title challenger Lauren Murphy, and she’d only lost to champion Valentina Shevchenko in those five fights.
Erin Blanchfield on the other hand had been perfect thus far into her UFC tenure, going 4-0 through her first four bouts with the promotion. And her most recent performance, like Andrade’s, quickly became one of the most vicious beatdowns in women’s MMA history, where she landed 111 strikes to zero en route to a first round submission victory over Molly McCann.
Continue reading to see how this flyweight main event went down:
Official Result: Erin Blanchfield def. Jessica Andrade via submission (rear naked choke) at 1:37 of round two
Both of these women open up the bout swinging. Blanchfield is right in Andrade’s grill walking her down landing good shots throughout the first five minutes, though she gets cracked hard twice in the first ten seconds.
She also eats a heavy right by Andrade with 45 seconds left in the first, which forces her to clinch. Other than however Blanchfield looked incredible in the first round, though she was unable to take the fight to the mat as Andrade stuffed all four of her takedown attempts.
Blanchfield keeps this pace going into the second, and she’s able to secure double underhooks followed by a beautiful inside trip takedown one minute in. Blanchfield passes straight to half guard and then side control in the matter of milliseconds, then she waits for Andrade to try and get up before immediately taking her back.
As soon as Andrade gives up her back Blanchfield is on her neck, before throwing her hooks in shortly thereafter to secure the second-round submission finish.
https://twitter.com/combatsportsout/status/1627138426297360385?s=20
Erin Blanchfield has finished her last three opponents in a row, and her striking is nearly as polished as her grappling at this point. That’s saying a lot, this girl won the Eddie Bravo Invitational when she was just 18 years old.
Not to mention, she has a real chin on her, that handful of heavy punches from Andrade flattened a number of others.
Blanchfield may have just set herself up to be next in line for a shot at Valentina Shevchenko.
After Shevchenko’s last fight with Taila Santos, where Santos, a BJJ blue belt, had her back for a large portion of that fight, there’s reason to think Blanchfield could put her in a world of trouble. Then again, Shevchenko levels above say Jessica Andrade, who Blanchfield just looked great against, on the feet.
That’s a truly exciting match up.
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