The former strawweight queen released a long statement on social
media regarding her 42-second technical knockout loss to Weili Zhang
in Shenzhen, China on Saturday. The Brazilian never got started in
the headlining bout, as Zhang clipped her with a right hook before
flurrying with elbows, knees and more punches to get the
stoppage.
Andrade pointed out that the fate that befell her has happened to
numerous highly-regarded champions at some point in their
career.
I was waiting for a moment of calm to write to you. I want to thank
all my real fans and friends for the support. I’m not sad, we did
everything right,” Andrade wrote in Portuguese (translation via
MMAFighting.com). “I was very well trained and focused, it was
one of the fights that I was the most prepared for, but
unfortunately Zhang’s hand landed first and I went down, and then
it came a series of elbows that I went out and tried to recover,
but a knee came right after, so it was impossible to continue. I
don’t feel embarrassed because that happens to all fighters one
day. It happened to Aldo, to Joanna, to Cyborg, to Anderson
Silva, to Junior ‘Cigano’.”
“Bate Estaca” entered the bout on a four-fight winning streak and
had claimed the strawweight throne with a slam KO of Rose
Namajunas in her previous outing at UFC 237 in May. The
27-year-old Parana Vale Tudo representative has won seven of her
last nine bouts dating back to 2016, when she elected to drop from
bantamweight to 115 pounds.
“It’s not the end of the world, it’s just a restart,” she wrote. “I
have a solid career with 27 fights, I was the first Brazilian to
fight in the UFC Octagon, I’m a veteran in the promotion and in
women’s MMA. I became the No. 1 [ranked] in the world now because
above me there’s only the champion Weili
Zhang, who fought really well! And deserves the title. We
continue at the top because there’s our place, and life gores
on!”