Andrade says a fight between her and Tate would make sense if the former bantamweight champion is really considering a drop down in weight.
If Miesha Tate decides to drop down from bantamweight to flyweight soon, then Jéssica Andrade is happy to welcome her to the division.
Tate recently spoke about a move down being an option for her after her longtime friend and training partner Julianna Peña dethroned Amanda Nunes at UFC 269 earlier this month. ‘Cupcake’ said she would rather avoid a fight with the ‘Venezuelan Vixen’ right now, so her future could be at a new weight class, and Andrade has offered to meet her there.
“I recently read that Miesha is thinking about the idea of going down to 125 pounds and I would love to be her first opponent in this new weight class,” Andrade told Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting. “Maybe she never thought about it, but I entered the UFC because of her, when she went to shoot TUF with Ronda [Rousey] and withdrew from a fight with Liz Carmouche, and I was signed as her replacement.”
Andrade suffered a second-round technical knockout loss to the aforementioned Carmouche at UFC on FOX: Johnson vs. Moraga but rebounded with three consecutive wins over Rosi Sexton, Raquel Pennington and Larissa Pacheco. ‘Bate Estaca’ then alternated between wins and losses before she made her debut in the strawweight division over five years ago.
Andrade found immediate success and fought her way to two championship opportunities, the latter of which was successful after she knocked out Rose Namajunas at UFC 237. Unfortunately, the Brazilian did not hold on to the belt for long and lost her next two fights, prompting another change in weight class. Andrade has since settled at flyweight, where she is 2-1 now, and says a meeting between former champions makes a lot of sense for her next Octagon appearance.
“[Tate and I] went different directions in the organization, but I followed her this entire time in the UFC when I still competed at 135,” said Andrade. “She won the 135 belt right after I dropped to 115. I believe that a fight between a former strawweight champion and a former bantamweight champion would be an interesting show for the fans.”
Tate has not yet responded to Andrade but said she hoped to get a few more fights in and return to the win column at bantamweight following her unanimous decision loss to Ketlen Vieira at UFC Vegas 43 this past November.