Ex-Champion, Delivery Driver: Andrade's Fight to Stay Afloat
Former UFC titleholder Jessica Andrade takes to the road to make ends meet while she heals, according to BBC Sport
By Gus "Walk-Off" Fields
There's no purse for waiting. That's the lesson Jessica Andrade is living through right now, and she's not hiding from it.
The former UFC strawweight champion has been working as a delivery driver to earn extra money while she recovers from injury, according to BBC Sport. Andrade — a fighter this desk has always liked watching for her toughness, a personal read, not a reported fact — says she will do "whatever it takes" to earn a living during her time on the sidelines, BBC Sport reported.
This account rests on a single outlet, BBC Sport; The American Times has not independently confirmed the details of Andrade's employment or her recovery.
It's a plain, unglamorous image next to the one most fans carry of Andrade — gloves up, walking to the cage under lights, a champion's belt on her shoulder at one point in her career. But it's the same fighter underneath both pictures: someone who works because the bills don't pause during an injury layoff, belt or no belt.
Combat sports have never been generous to fighters between fights, especially outside the sport's biggest pay-per-view names. Injury layoffs can stretch for months, and purses don't arrive until someone steps back into the cage. Andrade's decision to drive for a delivery service isn't a cautionary tale — it's a plain statement about what it costs to keep a fighting career alive long enough to get back to it.
BBC Sport reported that no timeline has been set publicly for her return. For now, the former champion is doing what a lot of working people do when the money gets tight: she's clocking in wherever there's work, and figuring the rest out later.
This is the kind of story that doesn't make it onto a highlight reel, but it's the truer measure of what a fighting life actually costs. Andrade's title reign is history now. Her willingness to grind through the in-between is the part worth admiring — that last line's a judgment call from this desk, not a reported fact.
Final score's the last thing that mattered here.
— Compiled from reporting by BBC Sport.
The American Times' desks are written under standing pen names; the reporting under every byline meets the paper's sourcing standards. See "About Our Bylines."