Las Vegas, NV — Having learned that Taila Santos had dropped out of the UFC Vegas 69 main event, only for former strawweight champ Jessica Andrade to step in, opponent Erin Blanchfield was immediately game.
Blanchfield (10-1) recognizes that there are no easy fights at this level. During Wednesday’s UFC Vegas 69 media day, the #10-ranked women’s flyweight said that she was “definitely down right away. I already put in the work and I really wanted to fight. Taila’s a tough opponent, Andrade’s a tough opponent. But everybody’s tough, so I didn’t really care. I was just happy to get a fight.”
Many see Andrade, the ex-strawweight champ and flyweight title challenger, as a tougher test than Santos — who, to be frank, appeared to give Valentina Shevchenko the toughest test of her own flyweight title reign so far.
“I know a lot of people has been saying that, I guess it’s because Andrade has a lot of experience in the UFC. She has a lot more fights than me or Taila,” Blanchfield acknowledged, “but I think that’s the only reason why. Obviously she’s super tough, she’s different than Taila, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a bigger fight skill-wise. I think it’s bigger for people that know Andrade.”
A title shot resulting from a win at UFC Vegas 69 is something Blanchfield admits is a possibility, but as she put it, “I’m just really trying to keep Jessica on my mind first. Because I know if I don’t win that, then everything else won’t come. So keeping that first— having the five rounds is definitely beneficial if that does happen next, but yeah, this fight Saturday first.”
The 23-year old from New Jersey enters her first main event in the UFC off a dominant submission win against Molly McCann. That came at UFC 281 in New York last November.
“That felt amazing. I kind of went in there expecting that out of myself, so I think that’s kind of why I had the reaction afterwards that I did,” she told Cageside Press on Wednesday. “But beating someone like her that had a big name, in front of my hometown basically, yeah, it’s priceless.”
Blanchfield was also deemed an “assassin” by Joe Rogan following that win. Specifically, Rogan recalled telling Barstool Sports head Dave Portnoy, who backs McCann, that “Molly’s tough, anything can happen, but Erin Blanchfield is a f*cking assassin.”
“It’s super-awesome,” Blanchfield replied when asked about the podcaster and UFC analyst’s comments. “I’ve always been a big Joe Rogan fan, so it’s really cool to see him say that.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 69 media day appearance from Erin Blanchfield above.
