Jessica Andrade earns second straight octagon win, defeats Marina Rodriguez at UFC 300
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, April 13, 2024, for the biggest event mixed martial arts has ever put on, UFC 300, going down live from the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.
Headlining the event is a light-heavyweight title bout between former UFC middleweight champion and current UFC light-heavyweight champion Alex Pereira (9-2), who aims to make the first defense of his title in tonight’s main event opposing no. 1 ranked former UFC light-heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill (13-1).
Co-headlining the event is also a title fight, this one going down at 115 lbs as UFC strawweight champion Weili Zhang (24-3) is set to battle no. 1 ranked Yan Xiaonan in the first ever China versus China title fight in UFC history.
Our feature fight of the evening comes in the lightweight division between no. 2 ranked Justin Gaethje (25-4) and former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway (25-7), who will slug it out for the BMF title in our third PPV bout of the evening.
Our early preliminary co-main event came in the strawweight division between no. 4 ranked former UFC strawweight champion Jessica Andrade (26-12) and no. 6 ranked Marina Rodriguez (17-4-2).
Andrade and Rodriguez both snapped losing streaks in their latest appearances, Andrade becoming the first woman to ever stop Mackenzie Dern this past November following a three-fight skid, and Rodriguez becoming just the second woman to ever TKO Michelle Waterson in September following a two-fight skid.
Continue reading to see how this strawweight encounter went down:
Official Result: Jessica Andrade def. Marina Rodriguez via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
As expected, Andrade would take the center once the bout began, landing a heavy leg kick about 30 seconds in. She continued landing those same calf kicks throughout the fight.
Rodriguez began landing good combinations on the feet, keeping her punches long, and mixing good kicks in with her attack. She however ended up on her back after throwing a front kick and spent about three minutes of the opening round on her back.
Rodriguez looked incredible through much of the second round, throwing less kicks, though feinting them, and picking Andrade apart with her boxing from the outside. She did a great job of keeping Andrade at the end of her range, circling out and not getting caught along the fence, and offering up a lot of accurate offense.
Andrade caught her in the final minute of the middle stretch however and unloaded on combinations along the fence, landing many of the punches while wobbling, and tiring Rodriguez.
Rodriguez got back to her striking in the third, though she was again put on her back for a short period. She returned to her feet quickly and continued landing good punches but was dropped with a leg kick in the final seconds.
This was a good, close fight.
It was hard to give Rodriguez the second round, though she handily won over four minutes of it, just based on all the damage she took in the final seconds. Rodriguez won the technical battle tonight, but Andrade won the fight.
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