Tatiana Suarez eyes UFC return at flyweight, discusses matching up with Valentina Shevchenko
Tatiana Suarez hopes to return this year but in a different weight class.
Still on the mend from various injuries, the former No. 3 ranked UFC strawweight will look to move up a division in her comeback. She hasn’t competed since defeating Nina Ansaroff in July 2019 at UFC 238.
Suarez’s desire to move up isn’t because of any weight-cutting issues. The standout wrestler never has missed the 115-pound mark, but Suarez (8-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) said she wasn’t competing with maximum energy when she was at 115 pounds.
“I want to see how I feel at 125,” Suarez said on “The 1, 2 Podcast with Kendrick and James.” “I’ve never missed weight, not even come close to missing weight. I’ve never had problems making weight … but come fight day, a lot of times I feel tired, and I feel not very strong. I don’t think I cut that much weight because at the start of my camp, I start at 130 and then I get down to 126 and then I cut from there. I don’t think that’s abnormal for a strrawweight. …
“But I still think somewhere in that I lose strength, and my cardio doesn’t feel as good. When I’m at practice, I never feel tired, I never feel weak, so I’m like, maybe it’s my weight cut.”
Suarez has faced a string of bad luck when it comes to injuries. Along with injuring her neck, Suarez also hurt her hand, suffered a concussion in practice and then had a chronic back injury that returned, which slowed down her comeback process. But that hasn’t deterred her from her title aspirations whether at strawweight or flyweight.
Though she has every intention of climbing the ranks and proving herself at 125 pounds, Suarez likes her chances against dominant champion Valentina Shevchenko. When asked how she would match up against “Bullet,” Suarez said her wrestling will be key.
“I think my grappling in general is definitely better than Jessica (Andrade’s) because everybody was like Jessica would have the upper hand, and I didn’t think that at all,” Suarez said. “I just think that Jessica is strong. I don’t think that Jessica is technically the best grappler at 125. I would never say that.
“I just think she’s very powerful and strong, and I truly believe that my grappling is way beyond hers in terms of technique. So if I fought Valentina, I don’t think she would be able to impose the same game that she did with Andrade.”
