Jessica Andrade and Natalia Silva meet Saturday in the co-main event card of UFC Fight Night 242 at UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Check out this quick breakdown of the matchup from MMA Junkie analyst Dan Tom.
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Jessica Andrade vs. Natalia Silva UFC Fight Night 242 preview
Former strawweight champion Andrade (26-12 MMA,17-10 UFC) is back at 125 pounds. She will be looking to extend her current winning streak to three, following consecutive wins over Mackenzie Dern and Marina Rodriguez, which came at 115 pounds. Andrade’s last flyweight bout was a second-round submission loss to Erin Blanchfield last February, and since then, she has gone 2-2 as a strawweight. … Silva (17-5-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) has turned a lot of heads since her UFC debut in June 2022. She has competed in five fights in the promotion and won them all, including stoppages of Tereza Bleda and Victoria Leonardo. He last appearance was a unanimous decision win over Viviane Araujo in February.
Jessica Andrade vs. Natalia Silva UFC Fight Night 242 expert pick, prediction
The co-main event in Las Vegas features a top 10 attraction at women’s flyweight between Andrade and Silva.
Despite recently winning a fight down a division, Andrade finds herself, once again, campaigning at 125 pounds.
Standing in the perennial contender’s way is Silva, who is clearly
“the new hotness” in town, given her five-fight undefeated streak inside the octagon.
In fairness, the hype on Silva is largely justified, given her athletic ceiling and the clear improvements she’s made since stepping onto the UFC scene. Flashy repertoire aside, Silva demonstrates some sneaky counter-punching ability to go along with solid takedown defense fundamentals when working along the fence.
That said, Silva tends to play it a little too fast and loose on the back foot, which can be extra dangerous inside of the smaller octagon against a fighter whose preferred kill zone exists in the very same space as Andrade’s does.
Although I could easily see Andrade slipping into a head kick or dipping headfirst into a spinning sidekick from Silva, I believe that the smaller cage of the Apex will favor the former champion from both a striking and grappling perspective.
I’ll pick Andrade to win by club-and-sub in Round 2.
Jessica Andrade vs. Natalia Silva UFC Fight Night 242 odds
Despite the oddsmakers opening this bout closer to pick’em odds, public money has widened the gap in favor of the younger fighter, listing Silva (-320) and Andrade (+245) via FanDuel.
Jessica Andrade vs. Natalia Silva UFC Fight Night 242 start time, how to watch
As the co-main event, Andrade and Silva are expected to walk out to the cage at approximately 8:35 p.m. ET (5:35 p.m. PT). The fight will air on ESPN+.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 242.
