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Jessica Andrade would like to have another go at now champion Weili Zhang after her 42-second loss at UFC China.
Former UFC strawweight champion Jessica Andrade prefers to look on the bright side, following a 42-second TKO loss that cost ‘Bate-Estaca’ her belt at UFC Shenzhen. After being soundly defeated by Weili Zhang, the Brazilian tells Combate she still proud of what she was able to do in the fight—and for travelling halfway around the world to fight in her opponent’s backyard.
Andrade, who says she had never been knocked out before in her career (she has prior TKO losses to Liz Carmouche and Kinberly Novaes), hopes to meet Zhang again in the future—so they can have another go at each other.
“I’m very proud of what I did. To go through a different time zone, to come all the way here and fight her. She landed a good hand. I had never been knocked out before, and she did it. Who knows one day I can meet her again and then we will have a real fight.”
Despite being finished in only 42 seconds, Jessica still believes she was able to hurt Zhang with the few shots she was able to land. However, Andrade won’t mourn the loss for too long, chalking it up to being a part of the profession.
“I felt the punch, then came the elbows. I kept blacking out and coming back and blacking out again. There wasn’t much to do. I couldn’t work my aggressiveness, my strikes. The little I put on her, she felt. It’s part of the job, one day you win, one day you lose.”
Before the loss, Jessica Andrade (20-7) was on a four-fight winning streak, with victories over the likes of Claudia Gadelha, Tecia Torres, Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Rose Namajunas, with two of them coming by way of knockout.