NCAA changes transgender policy to limit women’s competition to athletes assigned female at birth

• February 6, 2025

By ERIC OLSON, AP Sports Writer

The NCAA changed its participation policy for transgender athletes on Thursday, limiting competition in women’s sports to athletes assigned female at birth only.

The move came one day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports. The order gives federal agencies latitude to withhold federal funding from entities that do not abide by Title IX in alignment with the Trump administration’s view, which interprets “sex” as the gender someone was assigned at birth.

The NCAA policy change is effective immediately and applies to all athletes regardless of previous eligibility reviews under the NCAA’s prior transgender participation policy. The organization has more than 1,200 schools with more than 500,000 athletes, easily the largest governing body for college athletics in the U.S.

“We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said. “To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard.”

The NCAA’s revised policy permits athletes assigned male at birth to practice with women’s teams and receive benefits such as medical care while practicing.

​ Orange County Register 

Santa Ana reaffirms city’s sanctuary promises

• February 6, 2025

The Santa Ana City Council this week reaffirmed its dedication to protecting all of the city’s residents regardless of immigration status, however, it is unclear whether it will consider again a Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group to review and possibly strengthen the city’s sanctuary protections.

City Manager Alvaro Nuñez said he will work alongside the city attorney to make sure the city is in full compliance with its sanctuary ordinance and “come up with an approach” that speaks to the language and “spirit of the ordinance.”

In 2016, Santa Ana became the first city in Orange County to declare itself a sanctuary city, prohibiting the use of city resources for immigration enforcement. With the city’s official sanctuary ordinance in 2017, the Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group was to advise city leaders on protecting immigrant residents and sanctuary city policies.

“I believe that we must continue to work with trusted, experienced organizations that have been in this fight from the beginning, organizations that have proven to prioritize the needs of our residents,” City Councilmember Jessie Lopez said adding she didn’t think the city would “lose anything by ensuring that we have access to experts, by ensuring that we have technical expertise and real data that we can rely on to inform our policy-making decisions.”

She is requesting the council revive the advisory group, which she said last met in 2020, following a flurry of activity from the Trump administration stepping up federal immigration enforcement, sparking fear in Orange County’s immigrant communities.

Whether the group ever existed was questioned by Mayor Valerie Amezcua and Councilmember David Penaloza, as well as the city attorney and city manager.

When asked about the existence of the group, City Manager Alvaro Nuñez said, “We’re still doing formal research to indicate any type of listing, and maybe because it’s been a long time since they met … as far as a formal established committee or setting, no.”

City Attorney Sonia Carvalho also said she could not find “anything to suggest the Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group had ever been in existence.”

Documents on the city’s website include calendar entries in 2018 for Robert Cortez, the former deputy city manager, for what are labeled as meetings of the group, along with former Police Chief David Valentin as well as folks from Resilience OC, UCI Law and other groups. There is also a 2017 record of the City Council having received and filed an update on the advisory group.

Community members at Tuesday night’s meeting told the council they had participated in the advisory group.

The need for such a group now was part of the council’s discussion at Tuesday night’s meeting. Amezcua pointed to the city’s current executive leadership.

“These protections are now embedded within our institutional framework, making them a permanent and effective part of city operations. The goals of the Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group have been successfully realized,” Amezcua said. “Inclusivity and immigrant rights are not just initiatives. They are fundamental values ingrained in our policies and in our practices. As a result, a separate advisory group is no longer necessary.”

Councilmember Thai Viet Phan said the data and information collected from experts can be submitted to the city manager’s office.

“Despite the fact that we may disagree on many other items, I believe that this council stands in solidarity with our immigrant communities,” Phan said. “If there’s information, if there’s data, if there are issues that you want to raise, there’s, I assume, nothing stopping anyone from sharing that with our city manager’s office, and I expect that you (Nuñez) will be receptive to this information so that we can ensure our policies and our procedures are reflective of best practices as much as possible.”

Part of the group’s identified tasks was to make recommendations on the use and oversight of the city’s Deportation Defense Fund, money used to provide legal defense to residents facing deportation. Councilmembers Johnathan Ryan Hernandez, Benjamin Vazquez and Phan recommended the oversight of the fund be brought back to the council as a separate item.

A joint letter from the Harbor Institute for Immigrant & Economic Justice, El Centro Cultural de México and VietRISE asked the City Council to consider separating the city’s legal defense fund from the advisory group.

“The fund has historically suffered gaps in outreach and services that remain unaddressed, particularly in relation to the city’s Southeast Asian refugee community members,” the letter said. “Seeing as the fund’s current provider was the only bidder for the next fund contract, the fund should first be restructured to 1) increase the scope of services and 2) expand outreach to communities not currently serviced before advancing any process that would result in granting the current provider the contract again.”

A request for proposals seeking a contractor to manage the defense fund was put out last November, however, only one organization applied, officials said. Hernandez said he would like to see a more inclusive contracting process.

“We need all hands on deck right now,” Hernandez said. “I want to ensure that we expand outreach to communities who are currently not being serviced before moving forward with any process that results in granting the current provider with the full contract amount.”

​ Orange County Register 

Trump will seek to end carried interest, expand SALT in tax bill

• February 6, 2025

By Akayla Gardner | Bloomberg News

President Donald Trump outlined his tax priorities in a meeting with Republican lawmakers, including a call to end the carried interest tax break used by private equity fund managers and expand the state and local tax deduction.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump laid out those measures and other provisions he would like to see in a sweeping tax bill this year during a meeting Thursday.

Also see: How Trump’s tax cut turned politics on its head in Southern California

Among the tax cuts he mentioned are his campaign pledges to end levies on tips, Social Security payments and overtime pay. Leavitt also said Trump wants to end what she cast as “special tax breaks for billionaire sports team owners” and create new cuts for made-in-America products.

That list included two new items that Trump didn’t highlight on the campaign trail — the end of the carried interest tax break and ending breaks for sports team owners — which could be used to partially offset the multi-trillion-dollar tax cut Republicans plan to pass before the end of the year.

The carried-interest tax break allows private equity managers and venture capitalists to pay lower rates on their earnings from the investments they make.

Republicans are also aiming to renew Trump’s signature 2017 tax cut law, including tax breaks for individuals and small businesses, which are set to expire in December. That same tax law blocked taxpayers who itemize federal deductions from deducting more than $10,000 per year for paid state and local taxes (SALT), including property taxes and either income or sales taxes.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said administration officials were “just starting the process now” on tax policy, calling it a “priority” on Thursday. “President Trump will give us his priorities, but I can tell you the real priority is fixing this affordability crisis for the American people,” he added.

The meeting between Trump and GOP lawmakers comes after Senate Republicans broke with their House counterparts, announcing a plan on Wednesday that would delay action on tax cuts until Congress passes a second budget reconciliation package.

While the strategy would speed up GOP efforts to give Trump resources to expand his crackdown on undocumented migrants, it conflicts with the approach House Speaker Mike Johnson has in the works across the Capitol.

Johnson is instead moving to combine many of Trump’s legislative priorities, including both tax cuts and immigration, into a single bill. House Republicans only hold a narrow majority in the chamber and packaging different priorities together offers to make it harder for any GOP dissenters to defect.

How Trump and lawmakers resolve the impasse poses an early test for the new administration and Congress. Trump has said that while he would prefer one bill to address all of his priorities, he would accept two bills to achieve his goals. Republicans in both chambers are trying to use a process known as reconciliation, which would allow them to pass a budget without any Democratic votes.

The president is also seeking resources to carry out his immigration agenda, which aims to implement mass deportations of undocumented migrants and resume construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said their chamber’s measure would be a roughly $300 billion measure, with about $150 billion of that in new spending over four years for border security and immigration enforcement and a similar amount added for defense.

​ Orange County Register 

Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s beef — from its beginnings to the Super Bowl — explained

• February 6, 2025

Drake vs Kendrick Lamar is the biggest beef in recent rap history. It’s a fight that’s gone miles beyond the usual lyrical martial artistry, though there has certainly been plenty of that. It has spurred multiple court actions and a stunning rebellion against their shared record label. It spawned a song that just won two of the big four Grammys and will almost certainly be performed at the Super Bowl this weekend.

It wasn’t always this way. They once were collaborators: On Drake’s 2011 track “Buried Alive Interlude,” on Lamar’s 2012 release “Poetic Justice,” and on A$AP Rocky’s “(Expletive) ’ Problems” that same year.

It didn’t last long. In 2013, the Pulitzer Prize winner Lamar was featured on Big Sean’s “Control,” in which he called out a slew of contemporary rappers including J. Cole, Meek Mill, A$AP Rocky, Big Sean himself and Drake.

“I got love for you all, but I’m trying to murder you,” he rapped. “Trying to make sure your core fans never heard of you.”

Drake responded in a Billboard cover story, saying “Kendrick’s not murdering me, at all, in any platform.” Lamar took another jab just afterward, at the 2013 BET Hip-Hop Awards.

The rappers launched occasional disses at each other in the following years. Drake beefed with other performers, most infamously Pusha T in 2018, where the latter rapper dropped “The Story of Adidon,” revealing Drake is a father.

In October 2023, J. Cole may have accidentally reignited the beef on “First Person Shooter” with Drake. He rapped “Love when they argue the hardest MC / Is it K-Dot? Is it Aubrey? Or me?” referencing Lamar and Drake’s birth name, Aubrey Graham.

Then, just over a year ago, it exploded exponentially. Here’s a timeline of the major developments. It should be noted that diss tracks between rappers often include exaggerated truths and unsubstantiated rumors for dramatic effect.

March 22: Lamar disses Drake on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That”

“The big three,” Lamar raps, calling back to J. Cole, “It’s just big me.”

He references Drake’s 2023 album “For All the Dogs,” and also compares himself to Prince and Drake to Michael Jackson: “Prince outlived Mike Jack.”

April 13: Drake’s “Push Ups” leaks

Drake’s response leaks. “You ain’t in no Big Three, SZA got you wiped down, Travis got you wiped down, Savage got you wiped down,” he raps. (SZA would later be announced as Lamar’s Super Bowl collaborator.)

April 24: Drake responds with a second, AI-assisted diss track and pulls in Taylor Swift

Drake’s second diss track used artificial intelligence technology to include verses from Tupac and Snoop Dogg, two of Lamar’s influences. In his own verse, Drake accuses Lamar of delaying his response track because of the imminent release of Taylor Swift ‘s “The Tortured Poets Department.” (Lamar collaborated with Swift on “Bad Blood.”)

Tupac’s estate threatened to sue Drake in response, so he removed the song from his social channels.

April 30: Lamar hits back with a nearly six-and-a-half-minute track, “Euphoria”

This is where it gets more complicated. Lamar’s “Euphoria” hits like an opus, unleashing a slew of allegations against Drake. He comes after Drake’s skills as a rapper, use of AI, appearance, racial identity, and parenting.

“I got a son to raise, but I can see you know nothin’ ’bout that,” Lamar raps.

The title is a reference to the HBO series “Euphoria,” of which Drake is an executive producer.

May 3: Lamar drops a follow-up, “6:16 in LA”

In Lamar’s next diss, titled after a time and location like Drake is wont to do, Lamar targets the company Drizzy keeps. “Have you ever thought that OVO was working for me? / Fake bully, I hate bullies,” he raps, referencing Drake’s record label. “You must be a terrible person.”

According to Billboard, the song was produced by Sounwave and Jack Antonoff — the latter notably Swift’s longtime producer. It samples Al Green’s “What a Wonderful Thing Love Is,” on which one of Drake’s relatives played guitar.

May 3: Drake launches “Family Matters”

Drake hits back with a music video and a nearly eight-minute response, in which he alleges abuse and infidelity in Lamar’s relationship with his fiancée.

May 4: Lamar responds with “Meet the Grahams”

Almost immediately afterward, Lamar addresses Drake’s son in “Meet the Grahams:” “I’m sorry that man is your father.” Lamar also addresses Drake’s parents, and “a baby girl,” alleging Drake has a secret daughter.

He also labels Drake a “predator,” without elaborating.

May 4: Less than 24 hours later, Lamar drops “Not Like Us”

Lamar doubles down, releasing “Not Like Us,” produced by DJ Mustard.

“Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young / You better not ever go to cell block one,” Lamar raps.

It would later reach stratospheric levels for a diss track.

May 5: Drake softens his blows on “The Heart Part 6”

Referencing Lamar’s “The Heart” series, Drake drops “The Heart Part 6.” In the song “Prove It,” Drake challenges Lamar’s allegations, doubles down on his own against him, and says that he does not have a secret daughter.

He sounds notably lethargic on the song — potentially taking a final bow with verses like, “You know, at least your fans are gettin’ some raps out of you / I’m happy I could motivate you.”

May 18: ‘Not Like Us’ hits No. 1

Lamar’s “Not Like Us” goes to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It will spend two weeks at the spot, 38 weeks on the chart, and end become the year’s No. 6 song. It would also do stratospheric streaming numbers, ending 2024 atop Apple Music’s global song chart.

June 19: A hometown victory lap for Lamar

Lamar takes a de facto victory lap with his Juneteenth “Pop Out” concert at the Forum in Los Angeles. He performs “Euphoria” and “6:16 in LA,” then is joined by Dr. Dre.

The two West Coast titans perform “Still D.R.E.” and “California Love” before Dre quiets the roaring crowd. He then delivers the “Sixth Sense” quote that opens “Not Like Us”: “I see dead people.”

A crowd of 17,000 including The Weeknd, LeBron James, Ayo Edebiri and Rick Ross rap along to every word. Lamar restarts it twice after the first verse and performs it four times in full.

September 9: Lamar heading to the Super Bowl

Lamar is announced as the halftime headliner at the Feb. 9 Super Bowl at the Superdome in New Orleans. SZA is later announced as a guest performer, before the two tour together this spring.

November 8: Lamar racks up Grammy nominations for Drake diss tracks

Lamar is nominated for seven Grammys, all of them for Drake diss tracks. Two are for “Like That,” the Metro Boomin’ collaboration, and five are for “Not Like Us,” including nods for record of the year and song of the year.

November 25: Drake broadens the beef to courts and label

After months of relative silence, Drake takes the fight to court, and takes the beef to another level. He alleges in a New York filing that Universal Music Group — the parent label for both him and Lamar — pumped up the popularity of “Not Like Us” on Spotify and other streaming services. The filing is a precursor to a potential lawsuit that demands the two companies preserve documents.

UMG calls the allegations in the filing “offensive and untrue.” Spotify did not publicly respond but has broadly denied assertions that its streaming figures are or can be inflated.

On the same day, Drake announces that he will tour Australia for the first time in eight years, starting on the day Lamar performs at the Super Bowl.

November 26: Drake strikes in court again

Drake strikes again, this time in a Texas court, where he aims at the radio play for “Not Like Us.” His filing, another lawsuit precursor, alleges UMG conspired with iHeartMedia, the biggest owner of radio stations in the U.S., to inflate plays and numbers for the track.

iHeartMedia did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press at the time, and did not immediately reply to a new request for a response.

January 15: Drake drops the big legal bomb

Drake makes his major legal move, for which the previous ones were only openers: A defamation lawsuit against UMG, alleging it put out and promoted “Not Like Us” even though it promotes false pedophilia allegations against him and suggests listeners should resort to vigilante justice.

It blames the label and the song for attempted break-ins and the shooting of a security guard at Drake’s Toronto home, online hate and harassment and the devaluation of his brand.

The suit does not name Lamar as a defendant.

UMG responds that the allegations are not only untrue but illogical given their years of investment in Drake.

February 2: Lamar wins five Grammys, including two of the biggest for ‘Not Like Us’

A week before his Super Bowl headlining gig, Lamar and “Not Like Us” have an epic night at the Grammy Awards. The track wins song of the year and record of the year and Lamar takes five.

He’s gracious and positive in victory, not mentioning Drake and saying “We’re gonna dedicate this one to the city” before shouting out Los Angeles area neighborhoods.

This story first moved May 7, 2024, and was resent on Feb. 5, 2025, to update with legal developments, Lamar’s Grammy wins and upcoming Super Bowl performance and Drake’s Australia tour.

​ Orange County Register 

Realtor.com leaves California, setting up headquarters in Texas

• February 6, 2025

By Joe Lovinger | Bloomberg

Realtor.com is joining the ranks of companies leaving California for Texas.

The real estate listings website, operated by News Corp. subsidiary Move Inc., is relocating its headquarters to Austin from Santa Clara. Realtor.com will now be based at 901 E. Sixth St. in the Texas capital, a building where it’s been a tenant since 2019.

Also see: California brokerage leans into private listings. Critics say buyers and sellers will be hurt

A string of businesses have moved from the coasts to Texas in recent years as the state has courted companies with its low taxes and limited regulation. Elon Musk moved automaker Tesla Inc. and social-media platform X to the Austin area, while Chevron Corp. and Charles Schwab Corp. decamped for Houston and Westlake, respectively.

Texas also has created new business courts to tackle corporate disputes, a move that has drawn attention from executives including Bill Ackman and Mark Zuckerberg.

Damian Eales, chief executive officer of Realtor.com, said Texas’s growing talent pool, low cost of living and expansion of the housing stock were part of its appeal.

The company has about 60,000 square feet (5,570 square meter) of space in its Austin building, a cross-laminated timber project on the city’s trendy east side. Realtor.com has left its Santa Clara office, and that location’s employees now work remotely.

Austin has developed millions of square feet of new offices in recent years, causing a glut of empty space. The metro area’s vacancy rate was nearly 30% at the end of the year, according to data from Cushman & Wakefield.

​ Orange County Register 

Average US rate on a 30-year mortgage falls to 6.89%, third straight weekly decline

• February 6, 2025

By MATT OTT

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. eased for the third week in a row, a smidgen of relief for prospective home shoppers getting into the market before the busy spring homebuying season starts.

The average rate fell to 6.89% from 6.95% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, it averaged 6.64%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners seeking to refinance their home loan to a lower rate, also retreated this week. The average rate fell to 6.05% from 6.12% last week. A year ago, it averaged 5.9%, Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including how the bond market reacts to the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage briefly fell to a 2-year low just above 6% last September, but has been mostly rising since then, echoing a sharp rise in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide for pricing home loans.

The yield, which was at 3.62% in mid-September, reached 4.79% three weeks ago amid fears inflation may remain stubbornly higher than the Fed’s 2% target. A solid U.S. economy and worries about tariffs and other policies potentially coming from President Donald Trump have also helped push bond yields higher.

The 10-year Treasury yield was at 4.43% in midday trading Thursday.

Elevated mortgage rates, which can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, have discouraged home shoppers, prolonging a national home sales slump that began in 2022.

While sales of previously occupied U.S. homes rose in December for the third month in a row, 2024 was the worst year for home sales in nearly 30 years, worse than 2023, which had been the worst in decades.

New data on pending home sales points to potentially further declines in coming months. The National Association of Realtor’s pending home sales index fell 5.5% in December from the previous month, ending a four-month streak of increases.

A lag of a month or two usually exists between when a contract is signed and when the home sale is finalized, which makes pending home sales a bellwether for future completed home sales.

For those hoping that mortgage rates will retreat significantly, economists say that’s unlikely.

Forecasts mostly call for the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to remain above 6% this year, with some economists including an upper range as high as 6.8%.

The Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged last week after cutting it three times in a row to close 2024, a sign of a more cautious approach as the Fed seeks to gauge where inflation is headed and what policies the Trump administration will pursue.

​ Orange County Register 

The US is freezing and La Nina usually eases warming. Earth just set another heat record anyway

• February 6, 2025

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The world warmed to yet another monthly heat record in January, despite an abnormally chilly United States, a cooling La Nina and predictions of a slightly less hot 2025, according to the European climate service Copernicus.

The surprising January heat record coincides with a new study by a climate science heavyweight, former top NASA scientist James Hansen, and others arguing that global warming is accelerating. It’s a claim that’s dividing the research community.

January 2025 globally was 0.16 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than January 2024, the previous hottest January, and was 3.15 F warmer than it was before industrial times, Copernicus calculated. It was the 18th month of the last 19 that the world hit or passed the internationally agreed upon warming limit of 2.7 F above pre-industrial times. Scientists won’t regard the limit as breached unless and until global temperatures stay above it for 20 years.

Copernicus records date to 1940, but other U.S. and British records go back to 1850, and scientists using proxies such as tree rings say this era is the warmest in about 120,000 years or since the start of human civilization.

By far the biggest driver of record heat is greenhouse gas buildup from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, but the natural contributions to temperature change have not been acting quite as expected, said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate for the European weather agency.

The big natural factor in global temperatures is usually the natural cycle of changes in the equatorial Pacific Ocean waters. When the central Pacific is especially warm, it’s an El Nino and global temperatures tend to spike. Last year was a substantial El Nino, though it ended last June and the year was even warmer than initially expected, the hottest on record.

El Nino’s cooler flip side, a La Nina, tends to dampen the effects of global warming, making record temperatures far less likely. A La Nina started in January after brewing for months. Just last month, climate scientists were predicting that 2025 wouldn’t be as hot as 2024 or 2023, with the La Nina a major reason.

“Even though the equatorial Pacific isn’t creating conditions that are warming for our global climate, we’re still seeing record temperatures,” Burgess said, adding much of that is because of record warmth in the rest of the world’s oceans.

Usually after an El Nino like last year, temperatures fall rapidly, but “we’ve not seen that,” Burgess told The Associated Press.

For Americans, news of a record warm January might seem odd given how cold it was. But the U.S. is just a tiny fraction of the planet’s surface, and “a much larger area of the planet’s surface was much, much warmer than average,” Burgess said.

January was unseasonably mild in the Arctic. Parts of the Canadian Arctic had temperatures 54 F warmer than average and temperatures got so warm sea ice started melting in places, Burgess said.

Copernicus said the Arctic this month tied the January record for lowest sea ice. The U.S.-based National Snow and Ice Data Center had it as second-lowest, behind 2018.

February has already started cooler than last year, Burgess said.

Don’t count 2025 out in the race for hottest year, said Hansen, the former NASA scientist who has been called the godfather of climate science. He’s now at Columbia University. In a study in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, Hansen and colleagues said the last 15 years have warmed at about twice the rate of the previous 40 years.

“I’m confident that this higher rate will continue for at least several years,” Hansen told The Associated Press in an interview. “Over the full year it’s going to be nip-and-tuck between 2024 and 2025.”

There’s been a noticeable temperature rise even when taking out El Nino variations and expected climate change since 2020, Hansen said. He noted recent shipping regulations that have resulted in reduced sulfur pollution, which reflects some sunlight away from Earth and effectively reduces warming. And that will continue, he said.

“The persistence of record warmth through 2023, 2024 and now into the first month of 2025 is jarring to say the least,” said University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck, who wasn’t part of the Hansen study. “There seems little doubt that global warming and the impacts of climate change are accelerating.”

But Princeton’s Gabe Vecchi and University of Pennsylvania’s Michael Mann said they don’t agree with Hansen on acceleration. Vecchi said there’s not enough data to show that this isn’t random chance. Mann said that temperature increases are still within what climate models forecast.

Follow Seth Borenstein on X at @borenbears

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment

​ Orange County Register 

UFC 312: Tatiana Suarez wants to show evolution versus Weili Zhang

• February 6, 2025

For every Tatiana Suarez fight, there seems to be a collective inhale. And then the air sits, held hostage in everyone’s lungs.

It’s not just how the undefeated UFC strawweight will perform. The tension and uncertainty are in the whether.

Suarez’s life has been a Sisipyhean struggle to the top, her pursuit for combat sports greatness frequently derailed by physical issues beyond her control.

So when Suarez’s fight with fellow championship contender Virna Jandiroba, set for UFC 310 in December, was scrapped in October, the breaths slowly escaped in the form of CO2 sighs.

Occam’s razor cut deep: Her body had betrayed her again. Or so was the assumption.

In fact, the undefeated Suarez was pulled from the card for good reason and even better fortunes, as her 11-year dream of fighting for gold will become reality Saturday when she challenges 115-pound champion Weili Zhang in the UFC 312 co-main event in Sydney, Australia.

“I feel really good. I feel healthy right now,” Suarez, 34, said in an exclusive interview at UFC 311 on Jan. 18 at Intuit Dome.

“I feel great. I mean, I’ve just evolved. I’ve been training the entire time. So it’s not like I just took time off, so I feel very excited to go out there and do my thing.”

At times, though, perception runs neck-and-neck with reality. Even UFC CEO and President Dana White, after the wildly successful UFC 311 in Inglewood, chimed in about Suarez facing the 35-year-old Chinese star three weeks later.

“I hope she’s healthy for this fight and gets through this,” White told the Southern California News Group.

A neck injury led to a thyroid cancer diagnosis that derailed Suarez’s 2012 Olympic wrestling dreams and steered her toward her pro MMA career. Even this endeavor, ever since taking to her competition on Season 23 of the UFC reality show “The Ultimate Fighter” like a hot knife to butter in 2016, has been slowed by significant neck and knee injuries.

The Covina native and former Northview High wrestling star has been through so much, including not fighting for nearly 45 months, that her story became an HBO documentary, “The Unbreakable Tatiana Suarez,” which aired last year detailing her struggles and unwillingness to let them dictate her life.

Suarez (11-0) admits that being under that kind of spotlight, instead of being under the lights in the Octagon, was “a little strange.”

“Even though it was something that was outside of my comfort zone, it was really awesome because of the feedback that I got because of it,” said Suarez, who last fought in August 2023 when she submitted former champ Jessica Andrade via guillotine choke. “Just how inspired many people were, or, you know, just how they told me it helped them in their life as well. And that’s basically what I want my legacy to be when I’m done fighting.”

All the setbacks led Suarez to making a difficult decision to move from Fontana and relocate to Las Vegas to be closer to the UFC Performance Institute. The groundbreaking facility, which caters to the athletes’ physical, mental and emotional health, has proved to be a game-changer for Suarez.

The relocation to Las Vegas also proved to be a life-changer. There, she met and began dating fellow fighter Patchy Mix while training at Xtreme Couture MMA.

Suarez was in Mix’s corner, literally and figuratively, nearly two years ago when Mix knocked out Raufeon Stots with a first-round knee to win the $1 million Bellator Bantamweight World Grand Prix and become the interim Bellator bantamweight champion.

And now, with her opportunity to win gold, Mix will be in her corner as well.

“I’m just happy that I have him there for me. And I know that it’s a lot for him too, because he’s wanted my dreams, just like I want for him too,” Suarez said. “We’re always there for each other. He’s there always sparring, taking video, coaching.”

Mix went on to unify the Bellator belt in November 2023 with a second-round rear-naked choke submission of Sergio Pettis. In May, just days before his first title defense with a split-decision victory over Magomed Magomedov, he proposed to Suarez in Paris.

It doesn’t get much better than to train and roll with your fiancé who is a world champion – one albeit whose inactivity has created a strained relationship with PFL, which last year bought Bellator and has since absorbed and discontinued it – even if he is your life partner who sometimes has to tell you to pump the brakes.

“When I have a question, even if it’s after all our sessions, and he’s like, ‘Give me a couple hours where you’re not, like, just hyper-fixated on this.’ And I’m like, ‘Let me just try this.’ And he’s all ‘OK, OK,’” Suarez said with a smile

While Suarez says Mix does go easy on her when they train together, the workouts are still a sensational primer for what she will encounter Saturday in Sydney.

Since losing back-to-back title fights to Rose Namajunas in 2021, Zhang (25-3) knocked out former champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk, tapped out champion Carla Esparza to regain her belt and last year dominated in unanimous-decision victories over Amanda Lemos and Yan Xiaonan.

“I think she’s a great fighter,” Suarez said of the two-time champ. “She’s well-rounded, and I think she goes and gets it, and so do I. So I think it makes her a good matchup.”

Even the UFC boss acknowledges this to be a stiff challenge for both fighters.

“First of all, obviously it’s a huge fight for Tatiana to be able to beat Weili Zhang,” White said. “And for Weili Zhang, it’s a really … as (tough) as she is and everything she’s accomplished … this is a huge test for her.”

Suarez doesn’t hold back in her gratitude for at long last receiving a shot at becoming a UFC champion. It’s been a road longer than most, wrought with more valleys than peaks.

She’s conquered cancer. She’s beaten the odds. And Saturday will be just another day in the office.

“I know it’s for the title, but to me, it’s just like another fight. I think everybody that I go against, I take them all so seriously,” she said. “So it’s not like I’m training any differently. Every fight I’ve ever had, I give it my all, and I make sure that when I go out there, I know that I did everything that I could possible to get my hand raised.”

And then everyone can exhale.

UFC 312

Main event: middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis vs. Sean Strickland

Co-main event: strawweight champion Weili Zhang vs. Tatiana Suarez

When: Starting at 3 p.m. PT Saturday

Where: Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney, Australia

How to watch: early prelims (3 p.m. PT, ESPN+, Disney+); prelims (5 p.m. PT, ESPN2, ESPN+, Disney+); main card (7 p.m. PT, PPV via ESPN+)

​ Orange County Register