Jéssica Andrade Record: 26-15-0

Rise to strawweight champion

At 115 pounds Andrade became a wrecking ball. She stopped Jessica Penne and submitted Joanne Wood in 2016, beat Angela Hill in 2017, and although she came up short in a five-round decision against unbeaten champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk, she rebounded with wins over Tecia Pennington and a first-round KO of Karolina Kowalkiewicz. That earned her a title shot against Rose Namajunas at UFC 237 in Rio de Janeiro in May 2019, where she produced one of the most memorable finishes in the sport's history — a second-round KO slam — to win the UFC women's strawweight title in front of her home crowd.

The champion who never stopped moving

Andrade's reign was brief: she was stopped by Weili Zhang in the first round at UFC on ESPN+ 15 in August 2019. She then embarked on one of the busiest, most versatile stretches in women's MMA, dropping a split decision in a Namajunas rematch, scoring a body-shot KO of Katlyn Cerminara, and challenging flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko in 2021, who stopped her with elbows. She bounced between divisions with arm-triangle and TKO finishes of Amanda Lemos and Cynthia Calvillo, a decision over Lauren Murphy, and a 2023 TKO of Mackenzie Dern. More recently she has navigated a tougher run against the division's rising tier, with losses to Erin Blanchfield, Xiaonan Yan, Tatiana Suarez, Natalia Silva, Jasmine Jasudavicius and Lupita Godinez, broken up by a 2024 split-decision win over Marina Rodriguez.

Fighting style

Andrade is a relentless, forward-pressing brawler with genuine one-punch power and elite physical strength for the weight, the source of her famous slam knockouts. Her finishing breakdown is remarkably balanced — 10 KO/TKO, eight submissions and eight decisions among 26 wins, a 69% finish rate — and her jiu-jitsu base gives her a dangerous arm-triangle and guillotine game to complement the boxing. The trade-off is her height and reach disadvantage against taller, rangier strikers and her willingness to walk into fire, which accounts for a number of her losses, but few fighters bring her combination of volume, durability and finishing threat.

Career highlights

• UFC women's strawweight champion — knocked out Rose Namajunas with a slam at UFC 237 in 2019 to win the title in her native Brazil.
• Multi-division contender — competed and challenged for titles at bantamweight, strawweight and flyweight, fighting elite champions including Joanna Jędrzejczyk, Weili Zhang and Valentina Shevchenko.
• Power and finishing — 18 of her 26 wins have come by knockout or submission, a 69% finish rate built on slamming power and a strong jiu-jitsu game.