‘I’ll Have To Keep Fighting To Make That Money Again’

Jessica Andrade claims to have been done wrong by her former coach and manager, Gilliard Parana.

The former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Strawweight champion has filed a lawsuit against Parana in the United States, accusing him of the embezzlement of $2 million, per MMA Fighting. The pair worked together for 12 years, spanning from 2012 to 2024.

Since parting ways with Parana’s gym in Brazil, Parana Vale Tudo (PRVT), Andrade has won her last two fights, finishing Mackenzie Dern with strikes in round two before she earned a split decision against Marina Rodriguez at UFC 300 in April 2024.

“We have a lawsuit going about TransferWise and the money that was transferred to other people I’ve never seen in my life,” Andrade told MMA Fighting. “That happened when he was taking care of my finances, and I had no access to anything. At one point he said, ‘Jessica, look, let me handle this for you, you don’t have to worry about any of this.’ And as always, I trusted him. He removed my access to the account. He said, ‘You don’t need to look at your accounts, you’ll have a monthly salary.’ I was making good money in the beginning, but in the end, I don’t know how [that money ran out].

“He said I was shopping too much on Amazon, but with the investigation and all that, [we saw that] I made $2 million and spent $10,000 on Amazon,” she continued. “Where did the rest of the money go? It makes no sense, and it’s being investigated now, and we’ll find out where every penny went. I’ll just wait for now. I’m preparing for this fight [on Saturday], and as soon as it’s over, I’ll look at this lawsuit again and keep it moving

“The lawsuit is moving in the United States and he’s in Brazil, so I don’t know how it’s going to work,” Andrade concluded. “He was quite smart, he left before things happened.”

Andrade, 32, has essentially been there and done that throughout her UFC career throughout three divisions. Coming up on nearly 40 career fights with her 39th (26-12) against Natalia Silva at Flyweight in UFC Vegas 97’s co-main event this weekend (Sat., Sept. 7, 2024), Andrade could start thinking about retiring. However, the alleged incident with Parana has put a hold on that possibility.

“I could be thinking about retiring now, right?” Andrade said. “In fact, I’ll have to keep fighting to make that money again and have a normal life. But it’s all good, God knows of all things. Sometimes we have to go down so we can get back up better. I’m ready to receive what God has for my life. God won’t ever let me give up.”

In a statement to MMA Fighting, Parana denied the accusations, providing the following.

It was never like the way she’s insinuating, that I stole a single cent from her, much less the amount she’s talking about, which is completely baseless.

Anyone who has a brain and knows how to do math will see that she really doesn’t spend her money on just a few purchases on Amazon. She has a lot of expenses, and there are so many that she even gets lost in the calculations. Jessica is not incapable. Jessica is not a 15-year-old girl. And Jessica is not illiterate. Jessica was never forbidden from going to the bank, from calling the bank and from finding out how her accounts were. Jessica always had full access to her things and was always intelligent enough to know everything that happened in her financial life. And I was never the guy who took care of her financial life. I was just her advisor when she needed it and asked for it. But all of this will be proven if there is a coherent investigation. May justice be served and may the wrongdoer pay, because lying to the authorities and lying to have a trial go your favor is also a crime. Let’s wait and see what happens.

Another important thing to mention is that she says I have lost everything, that I only have a gym in Curitiba left which I bought with her money. This is absurd and very petulant of her to say this because I have always worked. I’m 44. When I met Jéssica Andrade, I had a nice car, I had a gym, I had a job. In all the years that she was with me, I always had other athletes. In fact, in the last few years, I have had four fighters simultaneously in the UFC. She’s talking as if I had no resources other than the payments she made me, and she doesn’t even mention the payments she made me. From her narrative I had no salary, I had no other jobs, no other athletes, and everything I bought in my life I stole from her. These are things that make no sense for her to talk about. And I didn’t even have the gym in Curitiba left because that’s my nephew’s gym, Bruno, who worked for her for a long time. It’s really becoming a persecution, her trying to defame me. I was — I don’t know if I still am, but I was — a very well-known guy in my work as a head coach and team leader, and I always worked hard representing fighters. I had four athletes in the UFC and I always earned a lot from them because I delivered on my promises. Certainly, if I bought anything, if I have any assets, it’s thanks to my work as a whole, nothing coming from the wrong thing.

I suspect that Jessica in 2023 — which is the year these accusations that were made by her occurred — she didn’t earn $2 million, as she’s saying she was robbed. It could be something close to that — unless she fought Conor McGregor and no one found out. All of you, media, fans, and herself, I think that after she sees my response here, if she sits at home and starts to remember everything she spent, she will have an idea that this calculation she is doing is not adding up.

And I always told Jessica that when she stopped fighting, got injured or retired, I would stop working as a head coach because I am already very tired of this kind of talk, with people I helped reach the top, it always causes problems. After I announced my retirement, it is obvious that most of them would leave as well since I would no longer be in charge of the work done as I always did. So when these problems with Jessica happened, I announced my retirement and I was not joking, I was not lying. It is obvious that the other athletes would leave, and I did not go after them, I did not care about keeping them on the team. Each one went their own way and I am sure that I fulfilled everything I promised everyone. I got everyone out of bad situations and left everyone well, whether with a contract with the UFC or another promotion, or working in a better place.

I made a UFC champion, an Invicta FC champion, and now Mairon [Santos] won TUF, a guy I worked with for six, seven years. I did great things in the fight business and didn’t steal from anyone. I worked hard as coach and manager, and I did very well in my career. If I were to go on about everything I remember here I’d spend a day talking about it because there’s a lot to talk about, but I hope I don’t need to talk about these things anymore.