Jessica Andrade wants to return the favor by having her first title defense come against Rose Namajunas.
Andrade became the new women’s strawweight champion following her slam knockout of Namajunas at UFC 237 in Brazil earlier this month.
Given that Namajunas didn’t have to defend her title in hostile territory, “Bate Estaca” is now willing to face her in Denver, which is where “Thug” trains out of.
“The person that I would really like to fight again would definitely be Rose,” Andrade said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show (via BJPenn.com). “Because she did a very nice act of kindness to me by going to Rio to defend her belt. She had no obligation to do that.
“And if she ever wants to fight again for the belt, I know she’s figuring some stuff out but if she wants to do it I’ll be happy to go to Denver and defend in her hometown the same way she did to me.”
Alternatives For Andrade
Of course, it’s not certain if Namajunas will fight again. She seemingly hinted at retirement following her loss to Andrade.
There is also talk of former strawweight queen Joanna Jedrzejczyk getting the next crack at the title, especially as she defeated Andrade two years ago.
But the Brazilian has others in mind.
“If Rose doesn’t want to do it, probably the winner of Nina [Ansaroff] and Tatiana [Suarez] would be the most worthy of the next title fight,” she added. “But in the UFC you never know so I’m just training and getting ready because I know that there’s a lot of tough girls coming up very soon.
It’s not that Andrade doesn’t want to get that fight back with Jedrzejczyk back — she just feels it would be unfair to the other contenders.
“As much as I would like to have the rematch [with Jedrzejczyk], I don’t think it would be fair at this moment,” Andrade explained. “Because she is 1-2 at strawweight since we last fought and there are so many girls putting in so much work and getting up the ranks that I don’t think it would be fair for her to just bypass everybody.
“But you know how the UFC is. Eventually, it’s gonna happen so I just hope that the girls that have been working on the division and climbing up the ranks get their chance before she does.”
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