Tecia Torres isn’t carrying a grudge into her fight this weekend against Jessica Andrade but she truly believes the matchup between two of the top five fighters at 115 pounds deserved the headline spot at UFC on FOX 28 from Orlando.

Instead, Torres and Andrade will meet in the co-main event with the winner likely securing the No. 1 contender’s spot in the strawweight division in the UFC. Just over a month later, UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas will battle former title holder Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 223 and Torres would like nothing more than to secure a shot against the winner.

Of course, Torres holds no ill will whatsoever towards the featherweight fight at the top of the card between Jeremy Stephens and Josh Emmett, but she’d by lying if she said that her matchup against Andrade didn’t deserve the marquee spot.

“I think that this fight should definitely be the main event but it really doesn’t matter,” Torres said ahead of her fight on Saturday night. “At the end of the day, I’m grateful for the fight and I just want to get in there and get another big victory so I can get one step closer to the title fight.

“Looking at the card, I definitely think our fight should be in that spot but it’s OK.”


Torres would rather not get distracted by the things she can’t control, especially with a dangerous opponent like Andrade waiting for her this weekend.

In a perfect world, Torres would like to secure a win over Andrade and then anxiously await the outcome of the title fight between Namajunas and Jedrzejczyk so she could face the winner. Torres has actually split a pair of fights with Namajunas in the past so they have history while she was one part of the same gym with Jedrzejczyk at American Top Team.

The one thing Torres knows for certain is whether she’s the first fight of the night or the main event, there are going to be plenty of eyeballs on her matchup with Andrade considering how much this bout could mean to the strawweight division title picture.

“I do believe that for sure,” Torres said about her bout being the most anticipated on the card. “I believe that will be the fight to watch at the end of the night.”