It’s not every day you see a standing submission. Then again, Jessica Andrade is far from an everyday fighter. She delivered the UFC’s first victory via standing arm triangle choke at UFC Vegas 52 this last weekend, tapping Amanda Lemos in the first round. Post-fight, Andrade elaborated on how scary she is in close quarters.
“The plan, on paper, was to tire her out in the first round, maybe second round, so I could take over in the third. I know she was going to hurt me, and I had to be cautious about it in the first round, and the moment I get in close quarters, girls get a little bit desperate, because I am pretty scary at close quarters.
Andrade’s Historic Submission: “I am pretty scary at close quarters”
The moment that I connected with her, she put her arm up, and I said, ‘OK, that’s the move we’ve been playing with the entire week.’”
Andrade was at a serious height disadvantage facing Lemos, but she closed distance to minimize the impact of Lemos’ advantage. Facing bigger fighters is nothing new for the former UFC strawweight champion, who faced some rough weight cuts in her old division and chose to move up to flyweight. “Pretty much everyone is taller than me, so it’s not that big of a deal.
I had two rough weight cuts in my last fights at strawweight, and that is what prompted me to fight at flyweight. Things weren’t going well – my head wasn’t in a good place. It was a little traumatic, the last two ones I had. So we decided to just take a break. Let’s give it some time, let’s do something a weight class above. Let’s just remove weight cutting from your mind for a little bit.
As well as things went at flyweight, strawweight is where I’m going to excel at. I know I can to do well at flyweight, I know that I can beat a bunch of girls at bantamweight. But if I want to be champion again, strawweight is the place to be.” Andrade simply wants to maintain her flyweight momentum. Who’s next?
“No matter what, I want to keep active if the girls are fighting right away. Joanna and [Zhang] Weili. If I can fight someone there it would be great. Hopefully, it could be soon, because they’re fighting next month. But if that doesn’t happen, if there’s something good at flyweight, I don’t mind fighting there. If there’s something interesting at bantamweight, I’ll fight there. It’s all good. Just keep me ranked everywhere, and I’ll fight whoever’s in front of me.”
Can Jessica Andrade claim another UFC title? Let us know in the comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8ZjRO4BHFQ
