Jessica Andrade plans return to 115lbs after flyweight win over Manon Fiorot at UFC Paris
Former UFC women’s strawweight champion Jessica Andrade is planning a return to 115lbs after a flyweight win over Manon Fiorot at UFC Paris.
Andrade is filling in for Katlyn Chookagian against Fiorot when the UFC makes its debut in Fiorot’s native France in September. Andrade is coming off of a first-round submission win over Amanda Lemos in the women’s strawweight division, and most people thought she would stick in that weight class and try to get her title back. However, she has decided to make the move up to flyweight to fight Fiorot.
According to Andrade, however, the move to flyweight is not permanent, and she plans on going back down to strawweight after it. Speaking to AG Fight in a recent interview, Andrade said her plan is to defeat Fiorot at 125lbs, and then she wants to go back to 115lbs and eventually fight the champion, Carla Esparza.
“She is a tough opponent, very strong, and has very good takedown defenses. But I’ve been improving a lot more, in the flyweight division I fight much better, so I’ll be able to do a good job, show my style and win at her house. She has a history of Brazilian women on the way, but I’m Jessica ‘Bate-Estaca’ and it’s not for nothing that I was champion, I fight in three categories (for) years,” Andrade said about fighting Fiorot at flyweight.
Andrade said after beating Fiorot, she wants to go back down to 115lbs and rematch Weili Zhang, with the winner of that fight getting to fight Esparza next.
“I’ve always been asking to fight (Esparza), my first fight at strawweight was to be with her and she didn’t want to, because Brazilians didn’t make weight, because I had fought Claudia (Gadelha) and she hadn’t. After I fought Jessica Penne and made it to weight without a problem, I talked to Carla to fight again. She didn’t want to, she blocked me from social media until today. I can’t see any of it and it’s part of the game. There will come a time when she will have nowhere to run. After my fight (with Fiorot), the idea is to go back to strawweight, face (top contender) Weili Zhang, and whoever wins goes to the title shot,” Andrade said.
Do you like this plan that Jessica Andrade has come up with?
