Jessica Andrade fought 30 times inside the UFC octagon since 2013, winning the strawweight title and also challenging for the flyweight belt, but needed to find a side gig recently to bring some extra money home.
Away from fighting while recovering from a shoulder injury after losing to Loopy Godinez in her most recent UFC bout in Aug. 2025, “Bate Estaca” told Direto de Vegas she’s “not afraid of hard work” if that means earning extra income.
“Thank God I managed to save some money, so things are going
well,” Andrade said. “But whenever I need to, I work as a delivery driver. I deliver meals and things like that. I just pick up orders through an app and make the deliveries. I do whatever it takes. I’m not afraid of hard work, I can do just about anything.”
Andrade said she has also helped a friend renovate her house, including painting walls and doing other types of work.
“Recently I started a project at [a friend’s] house, installing artificial turf,” Andrade said. “Her backyard was nothing but rocks. I went there and removed all the rocks from the ground. I thought, ‘I’ll give this a try. If I’m good at it, it’s one more way we can make some extra money whenever we need it.’”
Andrade has a UFC record of 17-13 across three weight classes, and has dealt with financial issues in the past. “Bate Estaca” admitted in a 2018 interview she was selling her own UFC gear to make ends meet, and revealed in this recent interview with Direto de Vegas her previous management team failed to pay U.S. income taxes for several of her 2023 fights. According to the UFC fighter, that’s being sorted out.
Andrade has announced in a 2024 interview she considered filing a lawsuit against her former coach and manager Gilliard Parana for allegedly embezzling $2 million, but now said she has decided not to move forward with the lawsuit. Parana denied all accusations at the time.
