Tatiana Suarez Shuts Down Flyweight Talk, Focused on Strawweight Domination: “Beat Everyone”
With her first UFC title fight right around the corner, Tatiana Suarez isn’t thinking about anything else.
The undefeated standout from Covina, California will step into the co-main event spotlight at UFC 312 in Sydney, Australia this Saturday for a clash with reigning and defending strawweight world champion Zhang Weili.
Suarez goes into her first shot at UFC gold with a perfect 7-0 inside the Octagon, and 10-0 overall. That includes back-to-back second-round submission victories over Montana De La Rosa and Jessica Andrade in her last two outings. She also holds finishes over former UFC champions Alexa Grasso and Carla Esparza.
Speaking with CBS Sports’ Shakiel Mahjouri ahead of her big night in The Land Down Under, Suarez was asked about potentially moving up to flyweight, should she succeed in dethroning Zhang and bringing the strawweight strap back to the States.
“I want to stay in my division, be the best in the world and beat everyone who comes up,” Suarez said. “Eventually, if I feel like moving up to 125 pounds is something I want to do, then yeah, we’ll go there. But I’m not really thinking that far ahead right now.”
Zhang weili eyes history-making performance against tatiana suarez
For now, Suarez would be best served to focus on the task at hand. And it’s a mighty tough task as only one woman has ever defeated Zhang Weili inside the Octagon. That being former two-time strawweight queen ‘Thug’ Rose Namajunas.
Since taking the title off the aforementioned Carla Esparza via a second-round submission in November 2022, ‘Magnum’ has looked practically unstoppable, scoring dominant wins over Amanda Lemos and Yan Xianon in her last two title defenses.
If Zhang comes out on top against Suarez, she’ll officially tie Joanna Jędrzejczyk for the most title fight wins in UFC strawweight history. Not to mention, she’ll take Suarez’s ‘O’ which would be a pretty nice feather in the cap of the Chinese superstar.
