NITEROI, Brazil — Jessica Andrade is one win away from becoming the UFC strawweight queen, and for the small-town girl who once drove tractors to help support her family farm, it’s been a long, hard road toward MMA eternity.
Andrade, better known by her countrymen as “Bate Estaca” — the Portuguese version of “Pile Driver” — had a different childhood than many big-city children in Brazil. Born to parents Julio and Neusa in the small town of Umuarama, which is located 345 miles away from the state capital Curitiba, Andrade had to help in the family business early on — and by early, she means really, really early.