5 biggest winners from UFC Fight Night: Amanda Lemos vs. Jessica Andrade

#2. Tyson Pedro – defeated Ike Villanueva in a UFC light heavyweight bout

Tyson Pedro returned to the UFC with a bang with his win over Ike Villanueva

While his fight was strangely buried on last night’s preliminary card, Australian light heavyweight Tyson Pedro made quite the bang in his first UFC appearance since 2018. Based on how well he dealt with Ike Villanueva, it may not be long before he’s back in title contention.

In 2018, Pedro looked like a red-hot prospect as he defeated the likes of Khalil Rountree and Paul Craig with some explosive finishes. However, after losing to a pair of more experienced fighters in Ovince St. Preux and Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, the Aussie found himself sidelined with a serious knee injury.

Thankfully, Pedro didn’t appear to have lost much during his lengthy layoff. He took the fight to Villanueva and eventually stopped him with a series of savage leg kicks and some thudding follow-up punches at the end of the first round.

Any fighter who can spend nearly four years away from the UFC and return to look this good deserves plenty of credit, and that alone would make Pedro one of last night’s bigger winners.

However, the fact that he’s still only 30 years old makes him a bigger winner still, as he’s got every chance of making his way back into contention for the light heavyweight crown. If he can do that, he’ll have pulled off one of the best comebacks in recent memory.

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#1. Jessica Andrade – defeated Amanda Lemos in a UFC strawweight bout

Jessica Andrade may only be a couple of fights away from another title challenge

Naturally, last night’s biggest winner was undoubtedly Jessica Andrade, who submitted Amanda Lemos in the event’s headline. In the process, she picked up her first win at 115lbs since her 2019 UFC strawweight title victory over Rose Namajunas.

Since then, ‘Bate Estaca’ had lost her title and been competing at 125lbs, coming up short in an attempt to win the UFC flyweight title in 2021 when she fell at the hands of Valentina Shevchenko.

Andrade had beaten Cynthia Calvillo in her last fight, but given that last night saw her face an opponent who was on a five-fight win streak, the Brazilian was essentially in a must-win situation if she had any hopes of reclaiming the title she lost to Weili Zhang in 2019.

The fact that Andrade not only picked up that win but did so by utilizing the first standing arm triangle choke in UFC history was a big deal, and while strawweight is a packed division, the truth is that ‘Bate Estaca’ is probably only one or two wins away from another crack at Namajunas.

Essentially, no other fighter who competed on last night’s card is as close to a UFC title shot as Andrade is now, and so there’s no question that she should be considered the night’s biggest winner.