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Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) reigning strawweight champion, Jessica Andrade, is too busy polishing her 115-pound strap to worry about the smack talk emanating from top contenders and former opponents Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Claudia Gadelha.
“I’m already used to having (Gadelha) and Joanna talking a bunch of stuff, but it’s jealousy because I won the belt and they haven’t,” Andrade told MMA Fighting. “They want attention and I won’t give them any attention.”
Jedrzejczyk, slotted to face Michelle Waterson this October in San Francisco, told Ariel Helwani she was not impressed by anything “Bate Estaca” did in her training videos. To be fair, the former champion does hold a five-round victory over the Brazilian and probably knows her offense better than anyone.
“I saw that when she posted it, but I didn’t care,” Andrade said. “I won’t post videos like her on Instagram. What’s the point of hitting pads, landing 10,000 punches, and then landing punches that are soft as feathers in the fight? She wants attention, she wants to talk me into asking for this fight before it’s time. She has to eat more rice and beans, has to get there and earn her chance. There are others ahead of her.”
I don’t know if that expression is to be taken literally, but they must not have Chipotle where Andrade lives because the last thing anyone needs to be doing is eating more rice and beans, especially if they share a bed with someone on a nightly basis.
Gadelha lost a lopsided decision to Andrade back in 2017 and told Helen Yee that “Bate Estaca” is too strong for the strawweight division and should not have won the title against Rose Namajunas after using a “brutal move” to slam “Thug Rose” into unconsciousness.
“Making weight is what matters, not the strength,” Andrade said. “But it’s all good. If she gets more wins like I did to earn another opportunity to fight for the belt, why not? I’d fight her again.”
Andrade (20-6) will defend her title against Weili Zhang in the UFC Fight Night 157 (UFC on ESPN+ 15) five-round main event, scheduled for Sat., Aug. 31, 2019 inside Universiade Sports Centre in Shenzhen, China.
Gadelha (17-4) is currently unbooked.