Jessica Andrade knew she would rematch Rose Namajunas sometime in her career.
Andrade and Namajunas first met back at UFC 237 where the Brazilian in Andrade scored a devastating slam knockout win to win the strawweight title. Immediately after the fight, there was talk of the two having an immediate rematch, but Andrade ended up fighting Weili Zhang at UFC Shenzhen for her first title defense but she suffered a first-round TKO lose her strap.
Since then, Andrade and Namajunas were booked to fight at UFC 249 on April 18 but “Thug Rose” pulled out due to personal reasons. But, on the stacked UFC 251 card, the two will finally rematch which the Brazilian knew would take place.
“After the win in Rio, I told Rose she could have the rematch any time she wants,” Andrade said at media day (h/t MMAJunkie). “I just wish I had the belt, but unfortunately that’s not going to happen. It’s a fight that was meant to be, and it was going to happen. It’s going to be on this Saturday, but it could’ve been a year or five years from now. Eventually, it was going to happen, so it’s good that we’re getting it out of the way.”
Entering the fight, Andrade is a +170 underdog where it is expected the winner of this fight will earn a title shot against Zhang.
