Jessica Andrade Drops Back to 115 Pounds to Face Xiaonan Yan at UFC 288

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship strawweight titleholder Jessica Andrade is returning to her old stomping ground in May.

According to Eurosport NL on Friday, Andrade (24-10) will be moving back to strawweight to take on Xiaonan Yan (16-3, 1 NC) on May 6. The two top-ranked 115ers will be squaring off on UFC 288 inside of the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The fight was later confirmed by Andrade on her Instagram Stories.

“Bate Estaca” saw her three-fight win streak across two divisions come to a crushing halt in February, when she stepped up on short notice to battle Erin Blanchfield atop UFC Fight Night 219. The Brazilian flyweight succumbed to a rear-naked choke in Round 2, suffering her first non-championship defeat at 125 pounds. Andrade last competed at strawweight on April 2022, where she snared Amanda Lemos with a standing arm-triangle choke in a one-off at the division she left in 2020. Andrade has since claimed she is willing to compete at any division needed.

China’s Yan has spent her entire career at strawweight, most recently ending the first losing streak of her career by taking a majority decision over Mackenzie Dern in October 2022. Before beating Dern, Yan had dropped two in a row to ex-champ Carla Esparza and Marina Rodriguez, the former her first knockout loss and the latter her first on the scorecards. The woman nicknamed “Fury” has yet to earn a stoppage in any of her seven UFC wins to date, sharply contrasting her pre-UFC run where she prevailed in seven of nine inside the distance.

UFC 288 goes down at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on May 6. The headliner has not yet been made official, but at least one title will be on the line as Aljamain Sterling defends his bantamweight strap against ex-champ Henry Cejudo. Other bouts likely to serve high on the billing include a lightweight clash pitting Charles Oliveira against Beneil Dariush, and a featherweight tilt as Bryce Mitchell takes on Jonathan Pearce.