Jessica Andrade will move up to flyweight to fight Katlyn Chookagian at UFC Fight Night 181 on October 17th.
Andrade made the decision to move up to 125lbs after losing her last two fights at strawweight since winning the title with a second round KO slam stoppage of Rose Namajunas back in May of last year.
Andrade went on to lose the title in swift fashion when Weili Zhang TKO’d her in just 42 seconds, while she’s since came off second-best in a rematch with Namajunas, losing out on the scorecards by split decision.
Nevertheless, Andrade is still ranked No.2 at 115lbs, but she’ll now look to test herself against the current No.1 ranked flyweight contender Chookagian, who fought for the title back in February, but lost via TKO in the third round to dominant champion Valentina Shevchenko.
Chookagian has since exerted some small measure of revenge by defeating Shevchenko’s sister Antonina by unanimous decision and will now hope to push herself towards another title shot if she can get the better of Andrade.
Andrade vs. Chookagian joins a UFC Fight Night 181 card that’s expected to be headlined by a featherweight fight between Brian Ortega and ‘The Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung.