Virna Jandiroba is out of her fight against Tatiana Suarez at UFC Fight Night 226 in Nashville on August 5th due to a knee injury and so Jessica Andrade has now stepped in to replace her.
Things haven’t been going well for former strawweight champion Andrade so far in 2023, with the 31-year-old having started the year with a submission loss to Erin Blanchfield, which was then followed by a first round knockout loss to Yan Xiaonan just last month.
Now she faces another tough fight against the undefeated former TUF winner Suarez, who won her first five fights in the promotion, but then had to spend almost four years away from the sport due to serious injury issues.
However, the 32-year-old Suarez finally returned to action in February of this year and picked up where she left off by earning a 2nd round submission finish against Montana De La Rosa to extend her career record to 9-0.
Andrade vs. Suarez joins a UFC Fight Night 226 event that will be headlined by a bantamweight fight between Cory Sandhagen and Umar Nurmagomedov, while the event also features the likes of Dustin Jacoby vs. Kennedy Nzechukwu, Said Nurmagomedov vs. Kyler Phillips and Ovince Saint Preux vs. Ion Cutelaba.
