(Jessica Andrade vs. Milana Dudieva, ProFC 47: Russia vs. Europe, 4/14/13)
Of the four women competing at tomorrow night’s UFC on FOX 8 card in Seattle, only Jessica Andrade has never competed before in a Zuffa-owned promotion. The 21-year-old Brazilian bantamweight was brought in as a replacement opponent to fight Liz Carmouche on the main card, after Miesha Tate was drafted to fill in for Cat Zingano on TUF 18. So who is this person, anyway? Well…
– Andrade has a record of 9-2 (all wins by stoppage), competing mostly in Brazil. She won both of her fights this year, submitting Milana Dudieva and Luciana dos Passos Pereira. Andrade’s last loss came against Invicta FC vet Jennifer Maia at a Samurai FC event in December.
– Her nickname “Bate Estaca” means “pile-driver.” Andrade got the nickname after illegally pile-driving some poor girl to get out of a submission during a jiu-jitsu match. She got disqualified for it, but her teammates thought it was hilarious.
– Yes, she is a lesbian — which makes her match against Liz Carmouche the first UFC fight between two openly gay fighters. Andrade has been in a relationship with the same woman for two years.
– Andrade is currently the fourth-youngest fighter under contract with the UFC. She’s been fighting professionally since just before her 20th birthday.
– Andrade takes pride in the fact that she’s an exciting fighter: “My style is quite frenetic. I hate stalling, and I’m pretty sure the audience doesn’t like to see it either. I love action and to show the fans what I’m there for — to fight. I work a lot on my stamina so I can keep up the fast pace for the entire fight. My base was more on jiu-jitsu, but I have been working a lot on my standup lately to put on an entertaining fight for the crowd.” As she continued on UFC.com, “Action…you guys can expect that for sure. I will not give up easily, I’m Brazilian, I’m PRVT (Parana Vale Tudo) and I will not give Liz time to breathe in the cage. I will leave my heart inside the Octagon.”
– Due to her obscurity, the Pile-Driver is currently sitting around +450 in the betting odds. The only other fighter who is that big of an underdog on the UFC on FOX 8 card is flyweight title challenger John Moraga. A $20 parlay bet on both fighters would net you $430 from BetUS.com. Just saying.
(Jessica Andrade profile via YouTube.com/UFC)