The contest between Jessica Andrade and Natalia Silva has been confirmed as a featured bout at UFC Fight Night: Burns vs Brady aka UFC Vegas 97. The MMA event takes place at UFC Apex in Las Vegas on September 7. The pair squares in an all-Brazilian three-round battle at flyweight. The rest of lineup of action has also been made official today.
Former strawweight champion Andrade (26-12) makes her second Octagon appearance for the year and targets the third win in a row. The 32-year-old took a split decision against Marina Rodriguez last time out at UFC 300 in April. Last November, she defeated Mackenzie Dern via second-round TKO.
Silva (17-5-1) is riding an 11-fight winning streak. In her previous outing at UFC Vegas 85 in February, the 27-year-old scored a unanimous decision against Viviane Araujo. In 2023, she earned a UD against Andrea Lee and stopped Victoria Leonardo in the first round.
Also confirmed for UFC Vegas 97 fight card, a featherweight bout between Steve Garcia (16-5) of Albuquerque, New Mexico and Kyle Nelson (16-5-1) of Huntsville, Ontario, Canada. Matt Schnell (16-8, 1 NC) of Amory, Mississippi and Alessandro Costa (14-4) of Mexico go head-to-head at flyweight. Trevor Peek (9-2, 1 NC) of Scottsboro, Alabama and Yanal Ashmouz (7-1) of Israel clash at lightweight.
Plus, Zhu Rong (24-5) of China and Chris Padilla (14-6) of Westminster, California meet at lightweight. Ryan Spann (21-10) of Memphis, Tennessee and Ovince Saint Preux (27-17) of Immokalee, Florida battle it out at light heavyweight. Jaqueline Amorim (8-1) of Brazil faces Vanessa Demopoulos (11-5) of Greece at strawweight.
In addition, Isaac Dulgarian (6-1) of Kansas City, Missouri takes on Brendon Marotte (8-2) of Haverhill, Massachusetts at featherweight. Felipe dos Santos (8-1, 1 NC) fights fellow-Brazilian Andre Lima (9-0) at flyweight. In the Brazil vs China showdown, Gabriel Santos (10-2) goes up against Yi Zha (24-4). Rounding out the card, Andre Petroski (11-3) of Springfield, Pennsylvania and Dylan Budka (7-3) of Baltimore City, Maryland duel at middleweight.
The main event is a welterweight bout between former title challenger Gilbert Burns (22-7) of Brazil and Sean Brady (16-1) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.