Jessica Andrade was willing to fight for the flyweight title at UFC 228, but it was too late.
As you probably know by now, Nicco Montano was unable to defend her women’s flyweight title against Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 228 due to medical issues from cutting weight. The UFC didn’t have enough time to line anyone up to fight Shevchenko on basically no notice, but one person did volunteer to do exactly that – strawweight Jessica Andrade.
At the UFC 228 post-fight press conference, Andrade told the media that she was willing to fight for the 125-pound title, but it was after the weigh-ins so the commission said no (transcribed by MMA Fighting):
“I even offered to fight for the belt if they agreed to, but since they had already weighed me and done all the work, I wasn’t allowed by the athletic commission. But I’m happy I was able to help the promotion, help the UFC with a great show and excite people.”
Instead, Andrade stayed in her strawweight bout with Karolina Kowalkiewicz, and thrilled fans with a walk-off knockout late in the first round.
She has competed seven times at bantamweight in the UFC in the past, but cut all the way to 115 in 2016. She’s had very good results there, going 6-1 and earning four performance bonuses. She has never competed at flyweight before, mostly because the division was only created relatively recently.