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How UFC’s Tatiana Suarez struggled and persisted to fight again

February 24, 2023

If everyone loves a good comeback story, then the world should spread its collective arms and embrace Tatiana Suarez on Saturday.

Still undefeated nearly a decade after embarking on a professional MMA career, Tatiana Suarez will walk to the Octagon for the first time in nearly four years against Montana De La Rosa on the UFC Fight Night 220 main card at UFC APEX in Las Vegas.

But to hear Suarez tell it, this is just another fight.

“I don’t approach it any differently. Just because, I mean, that’s how I’ve always been,” Suarez said in a phone interview Tuesday evening from Las Vegas. “I mean, I don’t like to put too much into anything, overhype or anything. The only thing that I trust in is just my abilities.”

But Suarez, 32, isn’t just another fighter. She was once on a fast track to what appeared to be, at the very least, a title shot if not becoming a titleholder. Her grappling skills were so dominant she began garnering comparisons to undefeated lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Cast in the unfortunate role of foil this weekend, De La Rosa (12-7-1) could prove to be a challenge on the mat for Suarez. Three of her five UFC wins have come by submission. Still, betting sites have Suarez as high as a 9-1 favorite, the biggest on the card.

“There’s not any pressure for me. If anything, she’s the one with the pressure,” De La Rosa, 28, said Wednesday at media day. “I mean, everyone says she’s the next Khabib or the woman Khabib, so I think she has a lot of expectations to live up to in this fight on Saturday.”

Since Suarez, then the second-ranked strawweight, defeated third-ranked Nina Nunes (nee Ansaroff) via unanimous decision in her last fight June 8, 2019, it will be 1,359 days between walks to the Octagon.

Prior to that, Suarez was laying waste to her fellow 115-pounders. Her two victories before Nunes were in 2018 against Alexa Grasso and Carla Esparza, both via devastating finishes.

Since then, Esparza won and lost the strawweight title in 2022 and Grasso will be challenging flyweight great Valentina Shevchenko for her belt at UFC 285 on March 4. But there are no sour grapes for Suarez.

“Unfortunately, I was just sidelined with injuries and, like, I couldn’t do it myself, you know? But I don’t envy them, you know what I mean? Or nothing like that.” Suarez said. “Like, I’m happy for them. And I’m glad that they are where they are. But it’s just like for me, in my mind, I already know that I belong at the top and that I’m going to be at the top. I just need to stay committed and determined like I always am.”

Is Saturday’s flyweight bout life or death? No, the Covina native and former Northview High wrestling standout already fought that fight and won it too, overcoming thyroid cancer in a diagnosis that derailed her dreams of wrestling in the 2012 London Olympics.

After becoming cancer-free, Suarez soon discovered Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA. In 2014, she went 2-0 as an amateur, then 3-0 as a pro over the next year. She landed a spot on the UFC reality show “The Ultimate Fighter” in 2016 and tore through that as well, annihilating all three opponents in the house before needing less than four minutes to submit Amanda Cooper in the final to win a UFC contract.

Suarez’s first serious neck injury actually proved fortuitous. That was what led to the discovery of a cancerous growth on her thyroid, followed by radiation treatment and the removal of her thyroid and several lymph nodes.

This second one, which occurred before the Nunes bout and became more aggravated during their fight, was the start of a two-year recovery process for disc issues and bone spurs.

“It was bad after the fight. It was really bad during, but it just got obviously worse throughout the fight,” Suarez said. “And by the third round … I was extra compromised.”

Then in the summer of 2021, two months before her comeback fight at UFC 266, Suarez’s knee was severely injured during a practice session. ACL, LCL, MCL, meniscus, all torn. Her PCL was partially torn. Major knee reconstruction followed.

“So basically, I was just wrestling, and I knew the guy was trying to take me down off the wall, and my leg just stayed,” Suarez said. “It got stuck then my knee completely just like … the other way. So there’s a pretty traumatic injury. Something I don’t really want to even think about.

“It was like … my leg was completely … like my knee was the different way. It was horrible. It was horrible.”

After months and months of recuperating and waiting, she was forced to undergo surgery, a grueling rehab and to be even more patient.

What’s more, it meant making the difficult decision to move from Rancho Cucamonga to Las Vegas, where Suarez knew she would be under the watchful eye of Heather Linden, the director of physical therapy at the UFC Performance Institute — “I think she’s the best in the game,” Suarez said — and could take advantage of all the facilities and amenities for free.

And now the one-time Olympic hopeful not only had to learn how to walk again, she had to learn to emerge from the darkness. And she had to allow patience to persist.

“It wasn’t great. I’ll tell you that. It’s hard to explain. It was a really hard time just because, you know, I had been patient for a while. And then I had to do the same thing all over again,” Suarez said.

Now it’s business as usual. The only change is Suarez will compete at flyweight, where at 125 pounds she can concentrate more on her game plan and less on cutting weight.

De La Rosa, a natural flyweight, believes this is to her advantage. “I just feel like there’s a lot of things that I can do in there that she hasn’t seen before, especially when she’s moving up to the flyweight division when she’s just been facing smaller opponents,” she said.

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After this fight, Suarez says she is open to dropping back down to strawweight and being a contender again.

“I plan on going back down. I just wanted to focus on the fight this time. I’m cutting, but it’s not as much as I usually do,” she said. “It matters to me. I just want to make sure I’m healthy. And I’m strong and I’m fighting.”

UFC 220

When: Saturday

Where: UFC APEX, Las Vegas

How to watch: ESPN+ (prelims, 1 p.m.; main card, 4 p.m.)

Orange County Register

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How UFC’s Tatiana Suarez struggled and persisted to fight again

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