RIO DE JANEIRO – When Jessica Andrade steps into the octagon to meet Rose Namajunas for the latter’s UFC strawweight title at UFC 237 on Saturday night, it will mark her second attempt at 115-pound gold.
The first time around, she fought then-champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk, and while Andrade (19-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) acquitted herself well in her UFC 211 challenge, she lost a clear-cut unanimous decision.
Since then, she’s won three fights in a row, and as she gets set to meet Namajunas (8-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC), Andrade believes the difference between then and now is a simple matter of confidence.
“The Jessica back from the first title fight wasn’t very confident, to be honest,” Andrade told MMA Junkie through an interpreter on Wednesday. “The biggest concern back then was how I was going to do for five rounds.”
She did, in fact, prove she could go 25 minutes. She also proved her last fight, as Karolina Kowalkiewicz learned to her chagrin, that she has one-punch knockout power.
All this flows from the lessons she learned the first time out.
“I had no idea if I was going to be able to keep the pace, if I was going to be able to have the stamina to fight for five rounds, and that was a great learning experience,” Andrade said. “Now I know I can go for the full five rounds and you can certainly expect this for that fight.”
For MMA Junkie’s full interview with Andrade, click on the video above.
UFC 237 takes place Saturday at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and ESPN+.
For more on UFC 237, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
