Dern and Andrade will both be looking to build momentum in their quest to return to the women’s strawweight top five.
No. 8 ranked Mackenzie Dern will look to continue her climb up the women’s strawweight rankings when she takes on No. 6 ranked Jessica Andrade at UFC 295 on November 11th.
The fight was subtly announced at UFC 292 when the cameras panned over to Dern and coach Antonio Trocoli enjoying the fights. The only mention of the fight was a small graphic in the corner of the screen noting she’d fight ‘vs J. Andrade at UFC 295 (11/11/23)’.
Maybe more fans would have noticed if they weren’t so curious wondering who this man was with his arm around Mackenzie.
Dern in the housepic.twitter.com/siuCr8GHFk
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) August 20, 2023
Dern’s last fight was a dominant win over Angela Hill in the main event of UFC Vegas 73. The BJJ phenom would take the victory via unanimous decision with 49–43, 49–44, and 49–44 scores. It was a cathartic moment for Dern, who’d gone through a tumultuous camp following a messy divorce. With her regular coach Jason Parillo busy preparing Luke Rockhold for his bare knuckle boxing debut, Dern turned to Trocoli to help her prepare for Hill.
Trocoli is a 12-3 fighter best known to fans in North America for a 2019 Contender Series submission win that was overturned due to a failed drug test for nandralone. Dana White had originally offered him a UFC contract off the win, but that ended up being nixed. “Malvado” went on to win three fights on the Brazilian regional circuit, and was re-signed by the UFC. They then released him after visa issues resulted in the last-minute cancellation of a UFC 282 fight against Ovince Saint-Preux.
As for Jessica Andrade, the former UFC women’s strawweight champion has been on a skid lately. After losing a flyweight title fight to Valentina Shevchenko, Andrade reeled off two wins at 125 and 115. But an extremely busy 2023 schedule hasn’t done her any favors: she’s fought four times this year already, going 1-3 in that stretch. Most recently she lost to Tatiana Suarez via guillotine choke in the second round.
Andrade has been open about the reason for fighting so often: her own messy divorce left her with almost no money. According to the Brazilian fighter, the UFC stepped up with a new contract that payed her multiple times what she made before.
“After we split up, there was the whole divorce thing,” she said. “You have to lawyer up and then the money just vanishes. Before I realized it, I had no money. That’s why I say I work for the biggest promotion in the world, though. When I needed them the most, they were there for me.”
Andrade will be looking to get back on a winning track against Dern, who is looking to earn her first winning streak in the UFC since a four fight run between 2020 and 2021.
UFC 295 goes down from Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York and is headlined by a heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic.