Since its inception, the UFC strawweight division has been viewed as the deepest collection of female talents on the roster, constantly boasting a robust championship class and plenty of promising emerging names to track.
This weekend in Las Vegas, the 115-pound weight class steps to the fore as Brazilian standouts Amanda Lemos and Jessica Andrade go head-to-head in a five-round main event that will establish the winner as a legitimate title challenger. It will kick off what should be an electric next several months in the ultra-competitive division.
ALL-BRAZILIAN BATTLE
Lemos entered 2021 on a two-fight winning streak, but no one was talking about her as a potential contender in the strawweight division. She’d earned good wins over Miranda Granger and Mizuki, flashing a little power and a well-rounded skill set, yet few envisioned the former Jungle Fights bantamweight titleholder as a force.
A first-round stoppage win over Livinha Souza made folks sit up and take notice. Her blistering first-round knockout win over Montserrat Conejo four months later forced people to pay attention. In those two outings, the 34-year-old Brazilian showcased a level of aggression, power, and ferocity rarely seen in the strawweight ranks, while carrying Lemos to the fringes of the Top 15.
She closed out her breakthrough year with a split decision win over Angela Hill in December, pushing her winning streak to five and moving her record to 11-1-1 overall, sending her into this year as a dark-horse contender.
When she steps into the Octagon on Saturday night, Andrade will be 364 days removed from facing Valentina Shevchenko for the flyweight title at UFC 261.
After scoring a first-round stoppage win over perennial contender Katlyn Chookagian in her divisional debut the previous October, the Brazilian powerhouse was expected to be the champion’s toughest challenge to date.
Instead, she simply became another speed bump in Shevchenko’s continued road toward all-time great status. Andrade was out-muscled, out-grappled, and out-matched; handed a second-round stoppage loss to drop her record to 1-3 over her last four fights.
She bounced back with another emphatic effort in September, again collecting a first-round stoppage win, this time against Cynthia Calvillo, but after constantly feeling undersized, the diminutive dynamo opted to return to the division she ruled for a brief moment in time a couple years ago.
Andrade has always been best suited to compete at 115 pounds, and experienced her greatest overall success in the division.
She claimed the title with a second-round knockout win over Rose Namajunas at UFC 237, but lost the title in a frenetic battle with Zhang Weili three months later before landing on the unhappy side of a split decision verdict in a rematch with Namajunas and departing for flyweight.
Now she’s back, ready to stamp her claim to a place in the Top 5 and potentially work toward a third meeting with Namajunas, who once again sits atop the division, but first she needs to get through Lemos.
EXCITING TIMES AT 115 POUNDS
While the flyweight division has a greater collection of young talents ascending the ranks, strawweight remains the most competitive division, especially when it comes to the championship picture.
Namajunas is currently in the midst of her second run atop the division, having won the title again last April with a first-round knockout win over Zhang before edging out the Chinese former champion by split decision in the rematch roughly six months later.
It was the third straight instance of Namajunas facing the same opponent in consecutive assignments, having previously battled Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Andrade in back-to-back outings.
Next up for the champion is another rematch, this time against Carla Esparza, who submitted Namajunas in December 2014 to become the inaugural UFC strawweight titleholder. Esparza lost the title in her first defense, and has diligently worked her way back into position to challenge for the strap again, entering next month’s UFC 274 co-main event on a five-fight winning streak, with every intention of once again toppling “Thug Rose” to claim championship gold.
In addition to next month’s championship pairing, there has been talk of a second clash between Zhang and Jedrzejczyk at some point this summer, with the upcoming UFC 275 Pay-Per-View in Singapore the rumored landing place for the contest.
The two first met at UFC 248 in March 2020, just before the global coronavirus pandemic shut down the sporting world. Zhang entered as the champion, fresh off running through Andrade seven months earlier, while Jedrzejczyk was the former titleholder, bent on reclaiming her place atop the division, and the two combined for what is unquestionably one of the best fights in UFC history.
Each remains much in the thick of the chase in the 115-pound weight class, but they are certainly not the only two joining Lemos and Andrade in carrying ambitions of fighting for the title before the year is out.
Marina Rodriguez had a more impressive 2021 than Lemos, kicking off the year with a second-round stoppage win over Amanda Ribas on Fight Island before earning unanimous decision victories over Michelle Waterson and Mackenzie Dern in consecutive main event assignments. She pushed her winning streak to four with a triumph over Yan Xiaonan last month at UFC 272, and currently stands as the top fresh name in the championship picture.
Though she fell to Rodriguez in the fall, Dern reminded everyone of her upside earlier this month at UFC 273, securing a split decision win over Tecia Torres where she showcased continued improvement on the feet and her world-class grappling skills. A multi-time Brazilian jiu jitsu world champion, the 29-year-old is a 12-2 for her career and a prime candidate to share the cage with the winner of this weekend’s main event later this year.
Along with those six contenders and two championship fight participants, the next couple months will also see Hill battle Virna Jandiroba in a battle of Top 15 talents, and streaking Brazilian Ariane Carnelossi face off with promising Mexican-Canadian Lupita “Loopy” Godinez, while fighters like Yan, Jessica Penne, Luanna Pinheiro, and Jinh Yu Frey all factor into the equation as well.
One other name to keep an eye on is Amanda Ribas, who is venturing up to flyweight to face Chookagian next month, but is currently ranked in the Top 10, and already holds victories over Dern and Jandiroba.
That’s a huge collection of talent from the strawweight division either slated to step into the Octagon or paying close attention to what’s set to transpire inside the cage over the next several weeks, and there are still several others not mentioned here with the potential to make some noise in the next couple months as well.
It’s an exciting time in the 115-pound weight class, and this weekend’s main event should be the start of an outstanding run of fights for the standouts in the strawweight division.
