Jessica Andrade returns to strawweight to face Amanda Lemos on April 23

One-time strawweight queen Jessica Andrade is set to return to her former weight class to face fellow Brazilian Amanda Lemos on April 23.

MMAFighting was first to report the news on Friday that Andrade (22-9) will end her three-fight run in the flyweight division and return to strawweight to face tenth-ranked fighter Lemos (11-1-1). Both sides have verbally agreed to the booking, however, contracts have not yet been signed.

“Bate Estaca” has had a very unique career in the UFC. She originally started her run in the promotion as a bantamweight in 2013. Despite being well undersized for the weight class, she split her six fights at 135-pounds. Beating notable names like Raquel Pennington and Larissa Pacheco in that time.

Jessica Andrade returns to strawweight in April

The Brazilian made the move to 115-pounds in 2016 and began a ten-fight run where she won seven times and scored the division title with a knockout victory over Rose Namajunas three years ago. All of her strawweight losses came to former or eventual champions in Namajunas, Zhang Weili, and Joanna Jędrzejczyk.

After losing to “Thug Rose” in their 2020 rematch, Andrade took her talents to the 125-pound division. She scored a first-round KO over Katlyn Chookagian in her division debut. Followed that with a second-round KO loss to flyweight GOAT and champion Valentina Shevchenko last April, then bounced back with another first-round KO victory against Cynthia Calvillo in Sept. at UFC 266.

Lemos is on a six-fight win streak and earned a closely contested split-decision over Angela Hill in her most recent Octagon appearance in Dec.

What are your thoughts on Andrade cutting back down to strawweight?