Natalia Silva faces Jessica Andrade with ‘heavy heart’ at UFC Vegas 97 after losing sister

Natalia Silva has a lot to fight for ahead of the biggest matchup of her career.

The surging flyweight contender is set to face former strawweight champion Jessica Andrade in the co-main event of Saturday’s UFC Vegas 97 card at UFC APEX. Silva, 27, enters the bout on an 11-fight win streak, including a 5-0 start to her UFC run.

While she steps into the cage with positive accolades, she also does so months after a heartbreaking loss in her family.

“First of all, I go into the octagon with a lot of will to win,” Silva told MMA Fighting. “I fight with a lot of heart and prepare myself a lot. This particular camp was really hard and I have a heavy heart because I lost a sister during this camp, and it’s something that when you fight for something that’s bigger than you, and if you actually lose something is more important than all of this, you fight with everything.

“[Andrade] understands why she’s preparing so much and why she’s training so much for this fight, because she knows how dangerous I am, she knows what [it] means to [fight] her. I’m going to go in this octagon approaching it as if it’s my first and last fight. I always take it one fight at a time and I go into the octagon with the will to win it, with the responsibility of being the fight that I need to win. So, she’s not going to be able to beat that.”

Silva’s sister tragically passed away earlier this year shortly after her 31st birthday, according to an Instagram post.

The loss of her sister was devastating and it left a hole in Silva’s heart that will never be filled. However, Silva now approaches her climb up the ladder through a different lens of thinking, and it all begins with her huge opportunity against Andrade.

“I wanted to be a champion for a very futile reason, maybe, just to be a champion of the UFC,” Silva explained. “I’ve understood that to be a champion, and carrying that belt, carries a responsibility, carries an opportunity as well. You have an opportunity for people to listen to you and to hear your story, and you have an opportunity to touch people all over the world, and it gives you the opening to say what I’ve been through. And if I would like to share my story, and what I’ve been through, hopefully people will listen.

“If just maybe, one or two or three people get impacted, whose lives gets transformed, or touched by what I’ve been through, I will be happy with that. And this win now represents something more of, not just being [closer] toward being a champion of the UFC, but also being a champion carrying that belt and having the opportunity to shine the light on people and to reach out to more people [by] being a champion. That’s what I see.”

Speaking recently with MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz, Andrade said she saw a lot of openings during Silva’s victory over Viviane Araujo at UFC Vegas 85 in February. Additionally, Andrade believes if she takes Silva down — like any other opponent in her eyes — “I know there’s no escape.”

Silva was asked to respond to Andrade’s thoughts, and the Brazilian standout welcomes the challenge.

“I think it’s really cool that she actually thinks that, because if that’s the strategy that she’s going to have, she’s about to meet a Natalia that she hasn’t had the opportunity to see in a previous fight,” Silva said.