Jessica Andrade made UFC history a few months ago when she faced off against Amanda Lemos and got the victory with the First ever Submission by Standing Arm-Triangle Choke in UFC history. Andrade the Former Strawweight Champion has many fights that i think would make sense for her on her way to fight current Champion Carla Esparza. One Possible matchup is between her and grappling ace Mackenzie Dern. Another matchup that would make sense would be between Andrade and the loser of the fight between Zhang Weili and Joanna Jędrzejczyk. The third option which I really like is a matchup between former two time Strawweight champ Rose Namajunas.
Mackenzie Dern is a very interesting matchup for Andrade as they both have Submission skills. Dern has many grappling achievements and looked great in her last performance when she got into the win column against striking expert Tecia Torres. Dern has an impressive 12-2 record and is a few fights away from fighting for the UFC Strawweight title. It may make perfect sense for Dern’s path to the title to go through former champion Andrade.
The loser of Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Weili Zhang at UFC 275 would be an interesting matchup for Andrade; former UFC Strawweight champions Jedrzejczyk and Zhang will face off in the rematch of their epic championship bout, and we think that the loser of the bout could be matched up with Andrade. A rematch bout with Jedrzejczyk would be an interesting matchup for Andrade as the two are different fighters from the first time the matched up with Joanna Jedrzecjyk improving on her already amazing striking game training everyday since her war with Zhang on the feet and Andrade also gotten better on the feet in recent outings not just relying on her Jiu Jitsu.
Rose Namajunas will always be linked to Andrade as it was Namajunas who Andrade won her belt from at UFC 237. In their second matchup Namajunas won a very close Split Decision. Namajunas is much like Andrade as she has very good ground game but also has a very good striking game. Namajunas looked rough in her last outing not doing much of anything in the fight while receiving awful coaching from her corner and fiance. On the other hand Andrade looked awesome in her last outing. We definitely think Andrade would win a matchup against Namajunas.
We can’t wait to see who Andrade will face in her next outing and whoever she faces will bring the fight.
MMA Aficionado 