Jessica Andrade open to big fights at 115, 125 or 135 after historic UFC Fight Night 205 finish

LAS VEGAS – Jessica Andrade is keeping her options open after producing a historic victory in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 205 headliner.

Andrade (23-9 MMA, 14-7 UFC) returned to the strawweight division for a main-event clash with the surging Amanda Lemos (11-2-1 MMA, 5-2 UFC) at the UFC Apex, and she delivered a highlight-reel result in the form of the first standing arm-triangle submission in UFC history.

After previously holding the title at 115 pounds, Andrade moved up in weight and did some work at women’s flyweight, where she fell short of the belt against Valentina Shevchenko. She’s now back at what she considers to be her best division and has her sights set on recapturing the belt.

However, Andrade said that’s not her exclusive focus. She wants to be active more than anything, and if that means moving back up to 125 pounds or even 135 pounds – where she began her octagon tenure – she said she’s ready to take any good opportunities the UFC presents.

“I think this is a big win,” Andrade told MMA Junkie and other reporters through an interpreter at the UFC Fight Night 205 post-fight news conference. “No matter what, the big thing is I want to keep active. If the girls are fighting right away, Joanna (Jedrzejczyk), (Zhang) Weili and the title fight (between Rose Namajunas and Carla Esparza). If I can fight someone there, it would be great and if it can be soon – I think they’re fighting next month. But if it can be soon, if it’s at flyweight, I don’t mind fighting there. If there’s something at bantamweight, I’ll fight there. Just keep me ranked, and I’ll fight everywhere.”

Andrade said if she had her perfect-world scenario, she would fight the winner of the recently announced rematch between Jedrzejczyk and Weili at UFC 275 on June 11. Both of those fighters have wins over her, with Andrade unsuccessfully challenging Jedrzejczyk for the belt in May 2017 then subsequently losing UFC gold to Weili with a 42-second TKO in August 2019.

The Brazilian said a rematch with Weili would mean more at this stage and would “probably be a very different fight” but said it’ll all depend on how things play out at UFC 275.

For now, though, Andrade is going to revel in the glory of a significant victory. She not only put herself in the record books with a unique finish of Lemos, but she also tied Amanda Nunes’ record for most UFC wins by any female with 14.

Andrade knew the win over Lemos wasn’t going to come easy but felt she had a path to victory and took it.

“We knew how dangerous she was, especially in the first round. We were very much aware of it,” Andrade said. “The plan was to tire her out in the first round, maybe second round, so then I could take over in the third. Luckily that happened. I knew that she was going to hurt me, and I had to be cautious about it in the first round, but as soon as I get close quarters I knew she would be worried about it because girls get scared when I get to close quarters, and that’s what happened. The moment I connected with her, she put her arm up and I knew, ‘That’s it.’ That’s what we’d been planning all week.”