Preview: UFC on ESPN 50 ‘Sandhagen vs. Font’

Women’s Strawweights

#15 WP4P | Tatiana Suarez (9-0, 6-0 UFC) vs. #8 WP4P | Jessica Andrade (24-11, 15-9 UFC)

ODDS: Suarez (-425), Andrade (+300)

This marks the fourth fight of 2023 for Andrade, and it is hard to tell exactly where the former strawweight champion’s career is headed at the moment. A powerhouse at bantamweight upon her UFC debut back in 2013, “Bate Estaca” somehow managed to carry all of her physicality and power down to 115 pounds once that division opened up, at which point she was an absolute terror. After marching up the ladder and getting turned back by then-champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk in 2017, Andrade blasted through contender after contender until she secured another title shot against Rose Namajunas in 2019, winning the title by slamming “Thug Rose” directly onto her own head. Andrade’s title reign wound up as a footnote in the grand scheme of things—she lost the belt to Weili Zhang months later—but she stayed relevant in two divisions going forward, quickly becoming a contender at flyweight before losing handily to Valentina Shevchenko. She then took whatever fight was available in either division, as the UFC needed. It was a solid arrangement until a path to one of the two titles opened back up for Andrade, as she racked up victories while showing some technical improvements to her specific brand of violence, with her January win over Lauren Murphy serving as a high-water mark. It was the type of performance that suggested Andrade could find another peak in her career, which has made her subsequent lack of success all the more shocking. Andrade stepped in just weeks after the Murphy win to take on surging flyweight contender Erin Blanchfield, only for the blue-chip prospect to score a breakout win by being willing to trade with the Brazilian before outwrestling her to a submission victory. Rather than retool, Andrade was back in action by early May to take on strawweight contender Xiaonan Yan in a fight that also went terribly wrong for the Parana Vale Tudo standout. Possibly trying to overcompensate for the Blanchfield loss, Andrade looked absolutely wild in swinging for a knockout and got obliterated by Yan as a result. Andrade is still somehow just only 31 years old, so there is time for her to figure some things out, but the vibes are not great as she steps in on late-notice once again for another tough test, this time in the form of Suarez.

If not for injuries and bad luck, Suarez easily could have been a much more decorated combat sports athlete, even going back prior to her mixed martial arts days. The Californian was an elite amateur wrestler and hopeful for the 2012 Olympics until thyroid cancer completely derailed her career. Upon her recovery, Suarez eventually found her way to mixed martial arts and the UFC in short order, blowing through her season of “The Ultimate Fighter” and continuing her undefeated run up the ladder all the way to contention. However, after a 2019 win over Nina Nunes, a cascade of injuries kept Suarez out of action for nearly four years until her return in February. It was a one-off fight up at 125 pounds—Suarez just wanted to get back to the cage without worrying about a weight cut—but she looked exactly like her old self in a one-sided win over Montana De La Rosa. Suarez’s striking just clears the bar enough to be functional, but that part of her game has rarely mattered given her ability to leverage her wrestling background and the subsequent grappling she has been able to show off as a result. That makes for a fairly clear dynamic here, as Andrade still has the knockout power to absolutely nuke Suarez given the opportunity, but she also figures to be outclassed in short order once this hits the mat. At this point, Suarez seems to have a much clearer focus in terms of what she hopes to accomplish. The pick is Suarez via first-round submission.

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Sandhagen vs. Font
Suarez vs. Andrade
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Lopes vs. Tucker
Boser vs. Camur
Bahamondes vs. Klein
The Prelims