Preview: UFC 319 Prelims

Women’s Strawweights

Lupita Godinez (13-5, 8-5 UFC) vs. Jessica Andrade (26-14, 17-12 UFC)

BETTING ODDS: Godinez (-148), Andrade (+124)

Andrade looks to re-establish herself at strawweight in this assignment. She was a revelation in her first cut to 115 pounds back in 2016. At that time, Andrade had made her name as a raw but powerful prospect up at bantamweight, and she carried every bit of that power down 20 pounds, running over Jessica Penne to establish herself as a dominant force in her new weight class. Opponents with advantages in size and technique could theoretically stay ahead of “Bate Estaca,” but in practice, the only opponent who was able to do so during Andrade’s first three years in the division was then-strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk in 2017. Two years after her loss to Jedrzejczyk, Andrade got her second strawweight title shot, this time against Rose Namajunas. She cashed in the opportunity in perfect Andrade fashion, grabbing Namajunas in a clinch exchange and slamming her onto her head, knocking the champion unconscious and winning the title as a result. That proved to be the high point of Andrade’s career, as she quickly lost the belt to Weili Zhang before a loss to Namajunas in a rematch. Finding herself now frozen out of the strawweight championship picture, she moved up to flyweight and quickly worked her way to an unsuccessful title shot at Valentina Shevchenko. Since that loss to Shevchenko in 2021, Andrade has been a valuable utility player for the UFC in the strawweight and flyweight divisions, save for a rough stretch in 2023 that now looked to have been due to some issues in her personal life. Andrade has always had problems with stronger wrestlers and grapplers, but her confidence looked completely shot until she rediscovered her groove with a knockout win over Mackenzie Dern. Andrade is still just 33 years old, but with a decade and a half of experience that has been hard-fought and prolific, she’s starting to fall behind the elite in both of her chosen divisions. Her last two bouts were at flyweight and saw her lose a clear decision to the much faster Natalia Silva and suffer a quick submission loss to Jasmine Jasudavicius. Now, Andrade returns to 115 pounds—where she has won her last two fights—against Godinez, who could prove to either be a poisonous matchup or just the bounce-back opponent the Brazilian needs.

When Godinez has her game firing on all cylinders, she looks like a championship-level strawweight. Part of a wrestling family, “Loopy” can put opponents completely through the wringer, taking them down at will until they either get completely exhausted or get submitted. The worry for Godinez? No matter how dominant she looks in her best performances, it takes a surprisingly low amount of resistance to take her off her game. That has apparently been going on as far back as her UFC debut against Penne, as Godinez seemed overly cautious solely thanks to the American’s height and grappling ability. Godinez has seemingly put in the work to become a much more complete fighter, but her March win over Julia Polastri only confirmed that her issues have remained persistent. Godinez had the fight well in hand for two rounds, only for Polastri to start marching her down and nearly sending her off the rails. Andrade doesn’t have a lot of the attributes that normally cause Godinez to start doubting herself. She’s not tall, her durability is inconsistent and she isn’t much of a defensive wrestler. However, Andrade does have knockout power, and it’s unclear if that alone can scare Godinez off, assuming the former champion can beat her opponent to the literal punch. The lean is that Godinez can still find her way into some wrestling, even if she might have to steel herself a few times to do so. The pick is Godinez via second-round submission.



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Green vs. Ferreira
Oleksiejczuk vs. Meerschaert
Godinez vs. Andrade
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Barboza vs. Klose
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Silva vs. Barbosa
Sezinando vs. Donchenko
Idiris vs. Morales