Preview: UFC 288 ‘Sterling vs. Cejudo’

Women’s Strawweights

#8 P4P | Jessica Andrade (24-10, 15-8 UFC) vs. #6 WSW | Xiaonan Yan (16-3, 7-2 UFC)

ODDS: Andrade (-195), Yan (+165)

Andrade’s career does not seem to have much of an obvious direction at the moment, but it is nice that she is willing to keep bringing violence until something materializes. Andrade was a powerhouse of a prospect when she came to the UFC as a bantamweight back in 2013, and it remains impressive exactly how much of that physicality she retained in cutting all the way down to strawweight once that became an option. Questions about Andrade’s technical proficiency have always dogged her career, but for the first few years, none of that seemed to matter in terms of her ability to wreck shop. Andrade blasted through fellow contenders Jessica Penne and Joanne Wood ahead of a 2017 title challenge against Joanna Jedrzejczyk, and after getting turned back by the Polish muay thai machine, she picked up right where she left off. Andrade’s second chance at strawweight gold—she took on Rose Namajunas in 2019—saw her earn the title in perfectly “Bate Estaca” fashion. Namajunas looked excellent for most of the fight, up until the point that they locked up and Andrade slammed “Thug Rose” directly on her head to end the proceedings. Unfortunately, Andrade’s reign wound up being a bit of a footnote, as Weili Zhang beat her in under a minute just a few months later. Even so, Andrade has hung around as a fringe contender in two divisions, earning a flyweight title shot against Valentina Shevchenko in the process. Andrade has been able to keep her momentum by taking fights whenever she can, though that tendency finally worked against her in February. Stepping in on about a week’s notice to take on Erin Blanchfield, Andrade was on the losing end of a breakthrough performance by one of the flyweight division’s top prospects. That result notwithstanding, at least Andrade still has some momentum purely as far as her strawweight career is concerned, so she drops back down to 115 pounds to take on Yan.

Yan is an interesting case, as she came into the UFC as a completely unproven prospect with low expectations, basically getting a shot as the promotion looked for talent to fill out a card in mainland China. However, Yan hit the ground running with five straight wins inside the Octagon and charged up to contender status, even if there were some concerns that her resume was built by catching opponents either just before or just after their primes. Carla Esparza wound up blowing Yan’s game wide open in their 2021 bout, neutralizing her volume-heavy striking game with takedowns and making her look lost on the mat. That seems to have motivated Yan to make some impressive strides in the two years since. She looked much more complete in the narrowest of losses to Marina Rodriguez, and her last win over Mackenzie Dern also served as a strong moral victory. Dern, a decorated grappler, obviously had her run of things once the fight got to the mat, but Yan was able to take three out of five rounds on the back of some much-improved takedown defense. That could serve Yan well here as part of a gameplan that likely involves three rounds of range striking, but it is unclear if she has the type of power or consistency to take Andrade out of her game and pry things open enough to earn a victory. The bet is that the former champion gets back to her wrecking ball ways. The pick is Andrade via first-round knockout.

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Sterling vs. Cejudo
Burns vs. Muhammad
Andrade vs. Yan
Evloev vs. Lopes
Jourdain vs. Gracie
The Prelims