UFC Nashville has a new strawweight matchup scheduled for it’s main card. Earlier today, we learned that Virna Jandiroba had suffered an injury and was out of her scheduled bout against Tatiana Suarez (9-0). Stepping in for Jandiroba is former strawweight champion Jessica Andrade (24-11).
Jessica Andrade is stepping in and she is going to be looking to snap a losing streak when she steps inside the octagon on August 5th. Andrade entered 2023 as a potential title contender at 115 and 125. She took a fight with Erin Blanchfield at 125 and the fight went horribly for her.
Following that fight, she decided to move back down to 115 pounds and fought Yan Xiaonan back in may at UFC 288. To the shock of many, Xiaonan knocked Andrade out in the first round. Andrade has never lost three fights in a row, but she’s facing that possibility against one of the more dangerous contenders in the division.
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In 2019, Tatiana Suarez defeated Nina Nunes to move to 5-0 in the UFC. The Ultimate Fighter winner looked like a future champion and was perhaps only one more win away from getting a title shot. In those five wins, she also had a TKO win over former strawweight champion Carla Esparza and a submission win over current flyweight champion Alexa Grasso.
However, little did anyone know that we wouldn’t see Suarez again inside the octagon for almost four years. A number of different serious injuries delayed her comeback over and over again. It started to get to the point where people thought she may never fight again.
However, Suarez kept pushing and finally returned back in February. She came back at 125 pounds and took on Montana De La Rosa. She showed off her dominant grappling and got a second round submission win. After getting her feet wet, she’s ready to drop back to 115 and now she gets to challenge herself against a former UFC champion.