When Ronda Rousey was headkicked out of a UFC title and plenty more here in Australia 10 years ago, Tatiana Suarez watched on from a couch in California.
UFC 312: Du Plessis v Strickland 2 | SUN 9 FEB | UFC middleweight king Dricus du Plessis is headed back Down Under for yet another title defence, with the South African set to face Sean Strickland in a blockbuster UFC 312 headliner in Sydney. | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports. Main Event on Kayo Sports and Foxtel is the exclusive home of UFC Pay-Per-View.
Already, this young, American wrasslin’ prodigy had fought, and beat, thyroid cancer.
Yet still to come, a run of neck and knee injuries so bad she would eventually disappear off and into those four arduous years comprising so much of her recent documentary: The Unbreakable Tatiana Suarez.
But that night she watched Rousey?
“A fight like that,” she says, “you never forget it.
“Same as beforehand, I still remember Holly Holm saying how she’d win, saying how Ronda was going to get overzealous and how she was going to KO her.
“And when that’s the way it all then played out … crazy.”
But still, likely not so crazy as your own truth, right?
“Oh, if things had been different,” Suarez shrugs, “I’d be a UFC champion multiple times over by now”.
Greatest female fighter of all time?
“Absolutely,” she continues without pause. “That’s what I think anyway.
“And thankfully, still have the opportunity too.
“My run starts Sunday”.
Some nine years after first being touted a “f***ing monster”, title challenger and the next Ronda Rousey, 34-year-old Suarez is now finally getting the chance to go prove it all – and more — at UFC 312.
Throwing down against Chinese strawweight queen Weili Zhang, Suarez isn’t only looking to continue her undefeated tear of 10 straight wins, but come good on a story that has proved equal parts promise, misfortune and who knows how many hours of grind.
Undeniably, much has changed since her winning The Ultimate Fighter in 2016.
For a start, Rousey has long been usurped in the women’s GOAT debate by Amanda Nunes, while others like Zhang and Valentina Shevchenko are inking their own legacies.
But Suarez?
Despite her standing as one of the most dominant forces in women’s MMA and wrestling over the past two decades, the American has still never competed for a UFC championship or Olympic medal.
In the past six years, this unluckiest of UFC fighters has thrown down inside an Octagon only three times.
Yet as far back as 2019, The Athletic’s Josh Gross was already revealing the confidence her then head coach Betiss Mansouri was extolling in conversations with UFC matchmakers Joe Silva and Sean Shelby.
“I was like, ‘Hey, I got the one,’” Mansouri said. “‘The next Ronda Rousey. I got it.’”
Later in the article, he continued: “This one is a fucking monster, man … she’s going to generate a lot of fucking money as long as she’s healthy.”
Of course, staying healthy, we now know, has proved something of a problem.
“But ever since starting out in MMA, I’ve known I can be the best,” Suarez tells Fox Sports Australia. “I know I’ve got the work ethic.”
And as for once being hyped to emulate no less than Rousey?
“It’s just been such a different route for me,” she concedes.
“After winning The Ultimate Fighter, I had all this momentum behind me.
“But then … yeah, there’s just been so many breaks.”
So what has kept Suarez in it then, especially when more than a couple of people were suggesting she retire?
“Knowing I’m the best,” she says.
“That’s what has kept me going, knowing I’m the best in the world.
“That’s why I can’t give in.
“I can’t be that person sat on my couch saying ‘oh, I could’ve done this and that if only I had continued with it all’.”
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Dana’s response to Strickland article | 00:32
Certainly one fighter well aware of Suarez’s talent – and grit – is Sean Strickland, that UFC 312 headliner who has spent more than a decade sharing gyms in California and now Las Vegas.
This week recounting an old yarn from their days at the Millennia gym, Strickland said of Suarez: “So she’s sparring, and just beating up this guy.
“Has this motherf***er in full mount, just dropping hell on him.
“And her coach at the time was like, ‘Whoa, Tatiana, chill out!’
“So Tatiana, while dropping the heat, looks at him [and says], ‘F*** you’ and just keeps f***ing blasting this guy’s face.
“So, dude, Tatiana is a scary b***h.
“I mean straight scary.
“If she was a f**king man, I’d have to shoot her.”
But you want to know real scary?
Well, consider that after defeating Nina Nunes in 2019, her fourth straight win following that TUF triumph, it was revealed afterwards how Suarez had worsened a neck injury initially suffered while training in camp.
Incredibly, it would keep the UFC title contender out two years – and through the type of rehabilitation process that is stretching your neck, she says, for three hours every day.
And then finally, when readying for that biggest of comebacks … her knee went in training.
“I just remember sitting there on the mat, couldn’t believe it,” Suarez recalls.
“I knew there was something wrong because the sound, it was like hitting stone with a baseball bat.
“And my knee, it was the wrong way …”
UFC 312: Du Plessis v Strickland 2 | SUN 9 FEB | UFC middleweight king Dricus du Plessis is headed back Down Under for yet another title defence, with the South African set to face Sean Strickland in a blockbuster UFC 312 headliner in Sydney. | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports. Main Event on Kayo Sports and Foxtel is the exclusive home of UFC Pay-Per-View.
Dana labels JDM a “promoters dream” | 01:20
Eventually, the fighter underwent surgery for a full ACL, MCL and LCL reconstruction and meniscus repair.
“So that meant 18 months gone,” she shrugs.
“I even relearned how to walk.
“My leg was so bad, it reduced to half its size.
“(Laughs) and I don’t have big legs.
“I thought the neck injury was difficult but this one, I was in pain every day.”
So as for how dark things got?
“I sulked for a little bit,” Suarez admits.
How long?
“Two days,” she says.
Two days?
“Yeah. Then after that, I just told myself ‘no, you’re going to become world champion’.”
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