Fresh off big wins, lightweight up and comers Stevie Ray and Paul Felder have been calling for a fight against each other this summer in Scotland. On Friday, they got their wish, with the two now slated to square off in a UFC Fight Night bout at The SSE Hydro in Scotland.
Tickets for UFC FIGHT NIGHT®: GLASGOW go on sale to the general public on Friday, June 2 at 10:00 a.m. BST via Ticketmaster.
Fight Club members will get the opportunity to purchase their tickets early on Wednesday, May 31 at 10:00 a.m. BST while UFC newsletter subscribers can secure theirs on Thursday, June 1 at 10:00 a.m. BST.
Fans are encouraged to register interest for the event visit www.ufc.com/Glasgow
Last month, Fife’s Ray made it five wins in six UFC outings when he followed up his victory over Ross Pearson with another important win over Joe Lauzon. Now he’s got his sights set on Philadelphia striker Felder, who earned his fifth UFC victory with a Performance of the Night TKO of Alessandro Ricci in February.
From the first time Jason Knight stepped into the Octagon for a short notice bout against Tatsuya Kawajiri in December 2015, it was clear that the Mississippi native wasn’t going to be one and done in the UFC.
Sure, he lost a hard-fought decision to the Japanese veteran that night, but he had that spark, that certain something that made you want to see him fight again. And three subsequent wins and two post-fight bonuses have confirmed those feelings and landed him in a UFC 211 bout against fellow featherweight prospect Chas Skelly on May 13.
It’s been quite a crazy ride so far, but the 24-year-old from D’Iberville is enjoying it all.
“I’m loving it,” he said. “It’s a good thing for me because the more that people know me, the more money I get to make and the more I get to do for my family. My main thing is I’m trying to give my kids a better life than I had and make sure they don’t ever have to want for anything. And the more that people know me, the better it is for me and my family. It’s a pretty cool thing and I’m dealing with it pretty well.”
Having three UFC wins and a growing fan base following his every move wasn’t always in the cards, though Knight hoped it would be. Yet even though he began training at 14 and turned pro at 17, the teenager was fighting an uphill battle from the start to get noticed in a state not exactly known for turning out UFC fighters.
“It’s hard for anybody in Mississippi to get noticed when there’s no one from Mississippi that’s ever been heard of,” he said. “So it was something I had to work on for a long time.”
That meant a lot of fights against all comers, all the while staying in the gym when he wasn’t working as a pipefitter. His coach and mentor, UFC vet Alan Belcher, was able to show him that getting to the big show was possible, but there were still obstacles to overcome.
“A lot of guys, especially where I’m from, it’s a really small town and you either work at the shipyard or build a house or do what your daddy did, and you never really make it out of this place,” Knight admitted, but he was determined to be different, and he was. That didn’t mean the phone was ringing, so while he was committed to winning and staying ready for that call from the UFC, when it did come, he was caught off guard.
“I knew it was probably going to be a short notice fight, so I tried to stay in shape and be ready,” he said. “But once they called for that Tatsuya Kawajiri fight, I had just had my baby boy and I had been out of the gym for a while preparing for him to get here, so I wasn’t really ready for that fight. But that’s an opportunity you can’t turn down, so I made sure I answered the call.”
And he fought his best until the gas tank ran empty. The next three fights against Jim Alers, Dan Hooker and Alex Caceres were quite different, though, and now he’s a new threat at 145 pounds that has become quite a favorite among hardcore fans. “The Kid” believes there’s a simple reason for that.
“I go out there and fight my hardest because that’s the only way I know how to do it. I fight hard every time because that’s the kind of fight that I want. I want something that’s not only going to entertain the fans, but that’s going to give me the chance to have some fun while I’m in there.“ — Jason Knight
“I think people like me because I’m real,” Knight said. “I go out there and fight my hardest because that’s the only way I know how to do it. I fight hard every time because that’s the kind of fight that I want. I want something that’s not only going to entertain the fans, but that’s going to give me the chance to have some fun while I’m in there. I’m not one of those guys that tries to say some stupid s**t or make up something fake to sell it to the media. I’m who I am. If you like me, good. If you don’t like me, then oh well. I think people like that about me because I’m not changing myself for anybody. I’m gonna be me, regardless.”
That goes for out of the Octagon as well, as fame and a UFC contract haven’t changed Jason Knight. The only difference now is that his fellow fighters and even kids around the area have a hometown hero they can look up to.
“I’m still me,” he said. “I’m still the same guy that I was 10 years ago. Nobody was looking up to me two years ago, but now all of a sudden everybody is because I did something with my life and it’s a real cool thing. And now that I’ve done it, there are a lot of younger kids around here that are learning that, ‘Hey, I can do something with my life. All I’ve got to do is push myself and give it the best I’ve got, and I can make it.’ I’ve tried to stress that a lot to the younger generation, that you don’t have to be what everybody labels you as or be stuck in that rut. It doesn’t matter where you came from. I had a rough life. My parents didn’t have money or anything like that, and everything I got, I worked for and earned it. And you can earn something and make something of yourself.”
Stipe Miocic doesn’t have particularly fond memories of his first encounter with Junior Dos Santos, but heading into their rematch next weekend at UFC 211 in Dallas, the reigning heavyweight champion is focusing on what has happened since that fateful night in Phoenix a couple winters ago.
“It sucked,” Miocic joked when asked about his December 2014 clash with Dos Santos on Thursday’s UFC 211 media conference call. “I had a swollen eye and some stitches inside my mouth, but it’s part of the game, I guess; a lot of bumps and bruises.”
The bout came at a critical point in the careers of both men, as Dos Santos was coming off his second defeat to Cain Velasquez and looking to maintain his place amongst the division’s elite, while Miocic had established himself as a rising star and potential contender, aiming to make the leap to the next level with a win over the former champion.
Over the course of 25 grueling minutes, the two crafted an instant classic – an exceptionally close, thoroughly entertaining battle that was electric from start to finish and landed in the hands of the judges.
“That was a really tough fight,” Dos Santos said of their initial meeting, which he won by unanimous decision. “He has really heavy hands, he’s got really good boxing skills. It was a tough fight for both of us and for sure we learned a lot from each other that fight and now I think we can be more prepared for each other.”
Their paths since partnering up to win Fight of the Night honors in the desert have gone in different directions, with Dos Santos splitting a pair of appearances and enduring various injuries as Miocic continued to rise through the ranks before claiming and defending the heavyweight title last year.
On the eve of doing it again in Dallas next weekend, the challenger believes he’s primed to return to the top of the division, but the champion has other ideas.
“I’m prepared to get the same result in this one – not in the same way, but I’m going to win this on May 13,” Dos Santos said. “I’m a very confident guy – I like to be positive – and in my dreams, the way I see things going, I see myself beating him before the end of the second round.”
“I think we both know someone is getting KO’ed,” said Miocic, sharing the challenger’s belief that the fight won’t go the distance for a second time.
“(It ends with) me winning,” he added. “I’m walking out with the belt still; that’s going to happen. I’m not going to predict what round, but I’m walking out with the belt.”
While the heavyweight championship rematch closes out the show at American Airlines Center on May 13, an intriguing strawweight title fight serves as the penultimate pairing on the card, with divisional queen Joanna Jedrzejczyk returning to action against surging contender Jessica Andrade.
Though never one to lack confidence, history could be bolstering Jedrzejczyk as she readies for her fifth title defense against the aggressive Brazilian.
She’s already earned a victory when sharing the card with next Saturday’s headliners, having defeated Claudia Gadelha for the first time on that December 2014 UFC on FOX event at U.S. Airways Center in Phoenix, and she won the title with a blistering second-round win over Carla Esparza three months later in Dallas.
Even with her successes, “Joanna Champion” made sure to sing the praises of Andrade, her lesser-known, but legitimately dangerous opponent at UFC 211.
“I’ve known Jessica for a while,” said Jedrzejczyk, explaining that the two were previously managed by the same company and have trained together on occasion in the past. “I respect Jessica as an athlete and we’re going to have a great fight in the Octagon.”
After beginning her UFC division at bantamweight, the diminutive Brazilian wrecking ball made the drop to strawweight last year and the results have been staggering.
In her first appearance, she trucked former title challenger Jessica Penne and followed it up by choking out Joanne Calderwood in her sophomore showing in the strawweight ranks at UFC 203. Back in February, she punched her ticket to next weekend’s title shot with a dominant showing against former Invicta FC champ Angela Hill.
Thus far, Andrade has looked like a juggernaut in her new division and Jedrzejczyk has certainly taken notice, but like Miocic, she has no plans on leaving Dallas without a championship belt as part of her carry-on.
“Jessica proved a lot in the strawweight division,” the champion said of her impending challenger. “She dropped from 135, she won three straight fights. She’s the right person and it’s going to be a really tough fight between me and Jessica.
“She’s very strong physically. She likes to fight, she likes to exchange punches, but like I said every time, I’m getting better and better and I want to defend my title. This is what I want to do.”
UFC Bantamweight champion, No. 5 UFC Pound-For-Pound fighter, and TUF 25 coach, Cody Garbrandt calls in to talk about his experience around the TUF house, Team Alpha Male saving his life, his upcoming first title defense against TJ Dillashaw at UFC 213 in July, the infamous TJ knockout video, getting engaged, and more. Later, No. 9 UFC Lightweight Dustin Poirier calls in to talk about his UFC 211 FX prelims Main Event fight against Eddie Alvarez, anticipating the best version of Eddie on May 13, recovering from a shin injury after the Jim Miller fight at UFC 208, and remaining calm and focused during fights. Plus, Jim and Matt discuss Anderson Silva’s recent comments, Cub Swanson’s broken hand, a possible Cris Cyborg vs. Megan Anderson fight, and Matt talks about awarding a Black belt to one of his students.
Some of the highlights from Episode 92 of UFC Unfiltered include:
Cody just wants to beat TJ’s face in and move on
Cody on his approach to coaching on TUF 25
Cody got „supreme confidence“ from KOing TJ in sparring
Dustin needs to fight patiently and unemotionally
Dustin on fighting Eddie Alvarez, who’s coming off of a loss
There were no moans and groans from Sergio Pettis when he was told the biggest fight of his career on May 13 will require him to go back to the site of his last loss in 2015. In fact, he’s looking forward to visiting Dallas to face Henry Cejudo in a UFC 211 main card bout.
“The last time I went there I took a big L and I want to recover that, but I’ve gotta thank Dallas,” Pettis said, referring to his second-round stoppage at the hands of Ryan Benoit. “Dallas is the reason why I changed my way of thinking and started changing the way I viewed MMA and everything else. Dallas is the reason I found my passion. When I got stopped there, I was like, ‘Man, I’m better than this.’ I made a little mistake and it made me realize how much little details matter. So it’s an honor to come back.”
It’s impossible to find a more mature approach from a fighter, and considering that Pettis is still only 23 years old, it adds to the appreciation for where the Milwaukee native is at these days. He’s won three straight since the Benoit bout, has risen to the number six spot in the flyweight rankings, and a victory over the No. 2-ranked Cejudo gives him a place in the title picture. But with that maturity comes a complete focus on the task at hand and nothing else.
“I’ve been dreaming to fight (champion) Demetrious (Johnson). I’ve watched him dominate everyone in the division, and I know that sooner or later I will get there. Maybe it’s not after this fight, maybe it is, who knows, but I’m not gonna look past Cejudo. Cejudo is a great competitor and he’s the next step for me that I’ve gotta get through, so I’m really focused on Cejudo right now.”
Pettis has always been a bit of an old soul. Entering the Octagon at 20 years old in 2013, he was dubbed “The Phenom,” and as the younger brother of Anthony Pettis, he had to field endless questions about his sibling and following in the championship footsteps of “Showtime.” And he took it all with grace at an age not usually associated with such an attribute. But he wasn’t a completed product yet, and after a 3-2 start in the Octagon, he knew it.
“I had a rough beginning, had my first two losses in the UFC, got submitted and got TKOed,” Pettis said. “And at the beginning in the UFC, I was just excited to be there. ‘I’m 20 years old, I’m in the UFC, I made it.’ That’s how I felt at the time.”
Then came the trip to Dallas in March 2015 and a loss that ultimately led him to several wins and a new outlook on his career.
“Now that I’m getting older, I’m starting to realize that this is my passion and something I want to be able to do for the next 10 to 15 years and I want to be the best at what I do,” he said. “I have the work ethic, I have the skills, I have the athleticism, and now I have the belief. And that’s something I didn’t have. It’s something I had to build into, and those losses and everything that played into it have led me into this moment with Cejudo. He’s a great, great competitor, an Olympic wrestler and definitely a big test for me and I’m excited to be tested.”
So how did he get to this level after the Benoit fight? He credits his mom first, but there are plenty of mentors that have also aided in the rise of this 125-pound standout.
“The times that I had rough patches in the UFC are the times when I wasn’t taking my career serious, and I still had times when I would go and kick it and be a young person,” he said. “But I kind of grew out of it and I have some of the greatest people around me. I’ve got Duke Roufus, Anthony Pettis, Israel Martinez, Scott Cushman, so I’m surrounded by mature individuals and I think that’s making me feel more mature and I’m taking myself a lot more serious.”
Pettis will take that serious attitude into Dallas with him, and while he won’t say it, it’s evident that he wants to take that city back for himself. You just won’t hear him say it.
He laughs, content to leave it with this:
“I’m a pretty calm guy, pretty chill and I fight that way. I’m very calm and relaxed out there, and I’m confident.”
A new division will be created and a new champion will emerge from the next season of The Ultimate Fighter®. Women’s flyweights, between the ages of 21-34 with a winning record and at least three professional fights are invited to attend the open casting call in Las Vegas. The season will also be open to females on the current UFC roster that can successfully make 125-pounds throughout the duration of the season. The previous casting call for women’s strawweights and bantamweights as well as male middleweights has been cancelled. The season will begin filming in July and premiere on FS1 later this year.
Applications, which should be completed and brought to tryouts, can be found online at http://www.ufc.com/TUF26. The athletes will be required to grapple and hit pads, so please bring appropriate gear. Applicants will be notified at the end of the day if they have been selected to move on in the casting process. If selected, applicants must be prepared to stay in Las Vegas until Saturday, May 27. All questions can be directed to gdefranco@pilgrimstudios.com.
The Ultimate Fighter, which debuted in 2005, has launched the careers of some of the UFC’s most recognizable names and successful athletes. The series has produced six UFC champions including Forrest Griffin, Rashad Evans, Michael Bisping, TJ Dillashaw, Carla Esparza, and Matt Serra.
WHO: 125-pound women
WHEN: Tuesday, May 23 at 8 a.m. PT
WHERE: Palace Station Hotel 2411 W. Sahara Ave. Las Vegas, NV 89102
Three stellar matchups will be heading to International Fight Week in Las Vegas on July 8, as the highly-anticipated UFC 213 card at T-Mobile Arena begins to take shape.
In the heavyweight division, it’s a rubber match between two of the best big men to ever strap on the gloves, as former world champion Fabricio Werdum attempts to break his deadlock with elite striker Alistair Overeem.
Werdum submitted Overeem in their first match in PRIDE in 2006, but „The Reem“ evened the score with the Brazilian star in a 2011 Strikeforce bout. This summer, they will collide for a third time in a pivotal showdown.
And while all eyes will be on Werdum-Overeem III, fight fans around the globe will get the action fight they’ve wanted when former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler returns to face Donald „Cowboy“ Cerrone. Back for the first time since July 2016, „Ruthless“ will be seeking a finish early and often against Cerrone, who has won four of five bouts since moving to the 170-pound weight class last year.
Plus, former UFC lightweight champion Anthony „Showtime“ Pettis will be back in the 155-pound division in July, and he’ll be in tough against veteran contender Jim Miller.
Tickets for UFC 213 go on sale to the general public on Friday, May 19. Sign up for more information by visiting UFC.com/fightweek.
After having his days as a rugged regional prospect with elite upside captured in the documentary Fightville, it’s only fitting that Dustin Poirier’s maturation as a fighter has played out on the grand stage for all to see.
The final image of Petra Epperlin and Michael Tucker’s behind-the-scenes look at the mixed martial arts scene in Lafayette, Louisiana is Poirier celebrating his victory over Derek Gauthier in Montreal, frozen with the news that following the bout, “The Diamond” inked a deal to compete in the WEC, which was still the home of the best featherweights in the world at the time.
Everything since then has taken place in full view of the ravenous MMA audience who have watched Poirier go from being an unknown newcomer and intriguing prospect to a Top 10 fixture and consistent all-action fighter in a pair of divisions.
Currently stationed at No. 9 in the lightweight division and readying to square off with former champion Eddie Alvarez at UFC 211 on May 13, the now 28-year-old American Top Team product is on the precipice of establishing himself as a title contender in the loaded 155-pound ranks and believes he’s finally found the right approach to help him ascend to the top of the division.
“Over the last couple training camps, I’ve focused on my awareness in there and my defensive boxing because I’m trying to go out there and take less damage,” said Poirier, who earned Fight of the Night honors for his victory over Jim Miller at UFC 209 earlier this year. “I want to be in those exciting fights that people want to see, but I don’t want to take a lot of damage; I want to be able to do it for another seven, eight years.”
The bout with Miller in Brooklyn showcased both sides of the internal tug-of-war that takes place for Poirier inside the cage.
At times, he was patient, calculating and precise, picking apart the gritty veteran with clean jabs and crisp crosses. In other moments, he threw caution to the wind, eschewing his fundamentals in favor of swinging for the fences and trading heavy blows with a smile on his face.
“The struggle is real, I promise you,” Poirier laughed when asked about the challenges of sticking to the game plan when a donnybrook is set to jump off. “That’s my DNA, that’s how I’m wired and that’s never going to leave. Put my back against the fence and the fight gets rough, I’m going to be the guy that bites down and fights until somebody falls; that’s never going to leave.
“But bringing that out at the right time, harnessing that fire and not letting it burn you is the way to think about it.”
Not only has Poirier’s approach inside the cage matured and evolved over the years, but the way he prepares in advance of stepping into the Octagon has been refined and reconstructed as well.
Like a lot of fighters, the proud new father used to become fixated on his opponents, studying them meticulously and letting his thoughts wander to where he stood in the title chase and what a victory would do for him.
“Before, in other camps, I would overwhelm myself,” admitted Poirier, who credits maturing as person, working with a mental coach and battling the best fighters in the world in two weight classes with helping him find his new pre-fight approach. “With breakfast, I would watch footage on the guy I’m fighting and cared too much about what was going on. Now I’m at the point where I’ve won a lot of fights and lost a few and I’m just enjoying what I do every day and worrying about me.
“If I sit here and think about what Eddie’s doing and what he thinks I’m going to do and this and that, I get so worked up,” he said of UFC 211’s featured preliminary card fight, the first since Alvarez dropped the lightweight title to Conor McGregor last year in New York City. “These last couple training camps, these guys are out of sight and out of mind. That’s the way I’m living my life.
“I’m pushing as hard as I can, doing everything in my power to show up in the best shape and the most prepared I can be. That’s all I can control. Everything that I can do is being done, plus I’m going the extra mile, so I don’t know what more preparation I can do.”
While he’s no longer worried about where a victory puts him in the crowded title picture or studying film of the man he’ll face in Dallas, Poirier does have a healthy amount of respect for what Alvarez brings to the table and sees this as an opportunity to elevate his standing in the pantheon of prizefighting greats.
“I have a lot of respect for him,” he said of Alvarez, whom he referred to as a legend in this sport. “He was a former champ; he did what I’m trying to do my whole career and he’s done it in a few different organizations. He’s a pioneer of this sport. I appreciate everything Eddie has done in his career.
“It’s an honor to fight him, it really is, because I’m going to go out there, beat Eddie Alvarez handily and I’m going to become a legend.”
Three weeks into the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter and it’s been all Team Dillashaw.
The latest fight that took place saw season seven competitor Jesse Taylor out work and out muscle Team Garbrandt’s Mehdi Baghdad over two rounds to earn a unanimous decision and move into the next round of the competition.
It was another sore spot for bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt, as he suffered a third consecutive loss to No. 1 contender TJ Dillashaw, culminating in the two coaches getting into yet another heated war of words.
It’s been well documented that before they were working against each other on the show that Garbrandt and Dillashaw were training partners at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, albeit at different stages of their respective careers. Dillashaw grew up in the gym after joining when his college wrestling days were finished, before eventually developing into a world-class fighter who would go on to win the UFC bantamweight championship.
Dillashaw eventually split with Team Alpha Male in late 2015.
Meanwhile, Garbrandt was still relatively young in his career when he showed up at Team Alpha Male after starting out in his home state of Ohio, but he quickly learned the ropes while working with fighters like Dillashaw and future UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber. Garbrandt just made his UFC debut in early 2015, so clearly he was still at the early part of his career when Dillashaw was on his way out of the gym. Needless to say, they’ve both learned a lot since the last time they’ve trained together, but that didn’t stop Garbrandt or Dillashaw from jawing at each other non-stop during the latest episode.
While Garbrandt was promising to settle the rivalry in the cage, Dillashaw fired back by reminding the bantamweight champion who is up in the competition thus far, with his team currently 3-0 through the first three fights.
„Maybe you should worry about your team. Maybe they’ll win a fight,“ Dillashaw said to Garbrandt this week.
The coaches certainly remained at odds, but the fight this week also presented a very interesting matchup between two former teammates as well.
Jesse Taylor and Mehdi Baghdad were actually both mainstays at Dan Henderson‘s Team Quest facility in Temecula, Calif. for three years and they worked together quite often. Despite those prior ties, Taylor and Baghdad had no problem facing each other in the Octagon, especially considering what was on the line this season.
For Taylor, The Ultimate Fighter: Redemption might serve as the last shot he’ll ever receive to make it into the UFC.
As part of the season seven cast, Taylor was by far one of the most talented and gifted athletes on the show, but he blew his opportunity when he went on a drunken tirade in Las Vegas just days after making it to the final fight. Taylor was eventually booted from the show and only ended up with one fight in the UFC before he was released from his contract.
Since that time, Taylor has stayed very active and busy fighting all over the world against a litany of top opponents, but he didn’t get another crack at the UFC until now. It’s safe to say Taylor knew exactly what was riding on his appearance on the show this season, which meant every fight will have do-or-die consequences for him.
And in many ways, Taylor is the poster boy for what this season is all about.
„You wanna talk about a redemption story? Jesse’s the guy,“ UFC President Dana White said of Taylor.
As for Baghdad, he felt he never lived up to his potential when competing in the UFC previously and he was released following back-to-back losses after he was brought into the promotion from The Ultimate Fighter 22. Baghdad admitted this week that competing at lightweight was at least part of his problem because he was shedding far too many pounds before facing an opponent in the Octagon. This time around, Baghdad is competing at a more natural 170 pounds, where he hopes to make another run at the UFC roster.
For all the talk about what it meant to get back to the UFC, Taylor and Baghdad still had to meet in the Octagon to prove it.
JESSE TAYLOR VS. MEHDI BAGHDAD
ROUND 1 It took only seconds for Taylor to rush forward and take Baghdad to the ground with a big double leg takedown. As a former college wrestler, Taylor knew that his grappling and power would be the best possible weapon to negate Baghdad’s striking attack. Once Taylor got the fight to the ground, he immediately passed guard and started to work to take the back. Taylor transitioned flawlessly from the mount to take the back while looking for the rear naked choke. Baghdad did eventually manage to get up from the bottom, but Taylor wasted no time planting him back on the ground before the round came to an end.
ROUND 2 The second round proved to be nearly a carbon copy of the first except Taylor did have to work a little harder to get the fight to the ground this time. Baghdad managed his best strike of the fight when he clipped Taylor with a quick left hand that stunned the former Cal-State Fullerton wrestler for a moment, but it ultimately only forced him to push that much harder to take the fight back to the mat. Taylor put on a punishing performance over two rounds while Baghdad was just locked underneath him fighting for air.
In the end, Taylor earned a lopsided decision over Mehdi Baghdad to move into the next round of the competition.
With Team Dillashaw already up 3-0, they will now return back to the fight that was supposed to take place earlier this season before Hector Urbina was forced off the show when he was unable to make weight. The No. 1 pick from Team Dillashaw, James Krause, will meet late replacement Johnny Nunez, who hopes to pull off the upset to get Team Garbrandt on the board.
It all goes down next Wednesday night at 10pm ET on FS1.
Ask Jessica Andrade if she’s thought about how May 13 will look like for her, and she hasn’t just pondered the day she challenges Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the UFC strawweight title. She has the whole day and night planned out.
“I will wake up, have a nice light breakfast and work out a little bit in the morning to get my juices going,” she said through manager / translator Tiago Okamura. “Head over to the venue, put on one of the best strawweight performances the UFC has ever seen, get that belt around my waist, go to the press conference, get a performance bonus. And from there I can go to my after party and enjoy how the day went.”
It’s a long way from September 2015, when Andrade had lost a rematch with Raquel Pennington that left her with a 4-3 UFC record. Despite that slate, she was clearly one of the best bantamweights on the roster, but at 5-foot-1 ½ with a 35” reach, the Parana native was stepping up to the plate with an 0-2 count every time. Of course that never stopped her from trying to battle bigger opponents.
“It was nothing new,” she said of her time at 135 pounds. “I have fought girls as big as 155 in my career in Brazil, so fighting bigger people has been the story of my life. But when you add the size difference to how good the level of these girls is at the UFC you start running into some very, very hard fights. When I got to fight girls closer to my size, even at bantamweight you could see the huge difference in performance.”
By the time of Andrade’s rematch with Pennington, Jedrzejczyk was already queen of the 115-pounders and was preparing for her second title defense against Valerie Letourneau. Andrade made the decision to join her future rival in the strawweight division. In June of last year, she debuted with a second round stoppage of Jessica Penne. A Performance of the Night submission of Joanne Calderwood and a Fight of the Night decision over Angela Hill followed, and just like that, “Bate Estaca” has become one of the most feared fighters in the division.
And she’s loving it.
“I feel like at strawweight I’m finally getting to become a proper professional fighter,” she said. “The results have been great proof that it was the right decision at the right time, but if I didn’t get the experience at bantamweight first I don’t know if I would have had the success at strawweight I’m having now.”
Call it the School of Hard Knocks, but that’s been nothing new for the 25-year-old, who has been fighting in one way, shape or form since she was in high school. Along the way, the humble battler has become a role model for women back home in Brazil, something she is still getting used to.
“I’m not sure about being comfortable about that, but I guess it’s not something you choose, it just happens,” she said. “I have gone thru a lot to get to where I am today, so I think to some extent I can be that for them.”
She can also be a shining light for all fighters in Brazil, as a win in the UFC 211 co-main event will see her join Amanda Nunes as female world champions for the nation, with Nunes’ hope that Cris “Cyborg” Justino will soon join them.
“It (winning the title) would mean all we have to do is wait for Cyborg to take that belt (UFC featherweight champion) Germaine (de Randamie) is holding up and Brazil would have total dominance of WMMA in the UFC. For me it would be more than a dream come true as, let’s be honest, when I joined the UFC there was no hope in hell I could become a champion at 135 and that was the only division in the promotion, so even thinking about a belt was out of reach. We hoped for 125 for a long time and when they skipped that one to do female 115, my dreams got thrown out the window again. But back then, as much as my support team knew I could make 115, I didn’t believe it, but here we are today. I’m 20 pounds lighter and taking on a defending champion for her belt.”
It’s a Cinderella story for sure, but there is still the reality that Andrade has to face and beat Jedrzejczyk, who has successfully defended her crown four times since defeating Carla Esparza in 2015. That’s a daunting prospect for any 115-pounder, and while Andrade is confident of victory, she’s also respectful of the champion’s skill set.
“She is a phenomenal striker with some of the best takedown defense in the UFC,” Andrade said of Jedrzejczyk. “Plus, she has the habit of making sure you pay for every failed takedown attempt which makes her game very interesting to watch and especially hard for a pure grappler to deal with. Since I’m not really a pure striker or pure grappler, I think I will eventually have to deal with her takedown defense, but first I have to deal with her long range striking, which is very sharp. I normally don’t mind taking a punch to land one of mine, as I know I usually overpower my opponents once I can get inside, but with someone like her over five rounds, I have to be extra careful.”
Careful, but not tentative, as a fighter like Andrade, who has been compared to Wanderlei Silva, is at her best when charging forward, fists flying. It’s why UFC fans can’t wait for May 13 and why many of them are calling this a bout with Fight of the Year potential. That’s a lot of pressure on top of winning a title, being a role model and bringing the belt home for Brazil, but the challenger is as cool as ever.
“All the pressure is on her,” Andrade said. “She is the one with the legacy in the division, she is the one getting close to her 30s, she is the one saying she wants to stop fighting to start a family, so all the urgency is on her side. I’m still 25 years old and getting my first title shot. All I have to worry about is being in the best form possible and performing to the best of my abilities.”
From the first time 
career.
LAS VEGAS
Call it the School of Hard Knocks, but that’s been nothing new for the 25-year-old, who has been fighting in one way, shape or form since she was in high school. Along the way, the humble battler has become a role model for women back home in Brazil, something she is still getting used to.
