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…
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