Jessica Andrade Turned Down Title Fight
Jessica Andrade is currently undefeated in the UFC Women’s Strawweight Division, defeating both Jessica Penna and Joanne Calderwood, she is also ranked #5 in the division. Andrade’s manager, Tiago Okamura, during an appearance on MMA Junkie Radio, says that Andrade was offered a title fight, but turned it down because she wants to take another fight first.
“After all the mess, the fight being canceled, they mentioned we could go straight (to the title shot),” Okamura said. “But honestly, for us it’s not very interesting because we need to make this worth (it), this has to be a proper camp. If we’re doing the title shot, we need to have money. We need to be prepared to invest on that camp because it’s a serious one, and it has to be taken with a different level of investment than a regular camp because we’re not going to go for a title fight just to be there.”
Although an exact date for the title opportunity wasn’t given, Okamura believes that the fight may have gone down this April.
“They didn’t mention a timeline,” Okamura said. “But we know Joanna has been saying she wants to fight in April, and that will be a little too late. So it would be ideal to do one more fight, make some money and put all that into camp. And then if she gets the title fight and hopefully defends it once before the end of the year, that would be nice.”
UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk hasn’t defended her title since UFC 205, where she earned a decision over Karolina Kowalkiewicz.
