Preview: UFC Fight Night 117 ‘St. Preux vs. Okami’

Women's Strawweights

Jessica Andrade (16-6) vs. Claudia Gadelha (15-2)

This is the best fight on the entire card, and excellent style clash and a beautiful pairing of top-five strawweights. Since dropping 20 pounds and getting in where she fits in at 115 pounds, Andrade has been positively beastly. She absolutely savaged Jessica Penne and Joanne Calderwood in 2016, stopping both inside of eight minutes. In February, she had one of the best fights this year in her raucous brawl with Angela Hill. Yes, Joanna Jedrzejczyk put a damper on her run at UFC 211 in May, but that is what “Joanna Champion” does. Gadelha knows all that all too well. She may be the second-best woman in the entire sport for all we know, but she remains defined by her two losses to the Pole.

Since her championship loss to Jedrzejczyk 14 months ago, Gadelha moved stateside and began training at Luttrell-Yee MMA in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The switch has paid competitive dividends in her last two outings, as “Claudinha” has shown improved boxing and started using her right hand far more effectively. That should serve her well in this matchup. While Gadelha prefers to be the forward aggressor, we know Andrade will assuredly run right into her space and start firing punches, so the jab and right cross off of her back foot may be her best weapon early. Gadelha also uses low kicks and teeps to the body to preserve the distance on rushing foes, which should allow her to keep Andrade at a safer, manageable distance.

Andrade has as much power as you could hope for at 115 pounds -- “Bata Estaca” is Portuguese for “pile driver” after all. She attacks the head and body in combination and knows how to lock up a submission on a compromised opponent. However, that is an unlikely scenario to engender against Gadelha. Even if Gadelha is unable to cleanly counter a rushing Andrade, she is a great takedown opportunist. Not only does Gadelha have a great power double and the ability to chain other takedown attempts behind it, she excels at changing levels at the picture-perfect moment to catch her opponent off-guard and off-balance. Andrade is almost overaggressive by default, and in this case, it is liable to get her countered or seated on the canvas.

In nearly any other matchup, Gadelha’s size and strength would be at the forefront of the breakdown, but Andrade’s own physical prowess mitigates it in this case. Nonetheless, even with a history of fighting 135-pound women, Andrade will get worn out by Gadelha’s rugged top game if she spends significant time beneath her. Gadelha’s Achilles heel is her gas tank; it is the price she pays for being an enormous strawweight who exerts the intense physical pressure she does. However, this is a three-round affair and she is not facing the well-conditioned and resilient Jedrzejczyk but a likeminded thoroughbred whose aggression she can exploit. It will not be as easy as Gadelha’s domination of fellow Jedrzejczyk victim Karolina Kowalkiewicz in June, but “Claudinha” will use her sharpened counter-boxing and well-timed takedowns to earn a decision win over her fellow Brazilian.

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