Tatiana Suarez: A future UFC champion in the making
In the eyes of most, Tatiana Suarez is destined to enthrone herself as the next great UFC champion in the women's divisions. With Valentina Shevchenko's recent loss to Alexa Grasso and Amanda Nunes' retirement, the promotion's WMMA roster is starved of a dominant champion beside Zhang Weili.
Unfortunately, 'Magnum' is Tatiana Suarez's target, and the former Olympic wrestling hopeful is gunning for the strawweight title. While Zhang Weili is currently set to defend her reclaimed divisional crown against the power-punching Amanda Lemos at UFC 292 this Saturday, Tatiana Suarez will be waiting in the wings.
Whatever happens in the UFC 292 co-main event, whoever emerges victorious with the strawweight strap, should expect a stiff challenge from Suarez. All signs point to her being a future UFC champion. While that label is often misapplied, here's why that isn't the case this time.
Tatiana Suarez's domination of former UFC champions
MMA math has long been debunked by analysts and fans alike. It is fool's gold in anyone's quest for a deeper understanding of a fighter's skill level compared to their peers. But there is no need to compare Tatiana Suarez's success to those of others. Instead, she can be analyzed as her own success story.
While she lacks a champion's belt, she has defeated several former titleholders during her UFC run, and that counts for something. A fighter might luck their way into beating a former champion. Flukes can and do happen. Matt Serra famously defeated Georges St-Pierre in one of the greatest upsets in MMA history.
Similarly, Michael Bisping flatlined the then seemingly unstoppable Luke Rockhold on short notice to capture the middleweight title. But how often do fighters overachieve and defeat champions they aren't supposed to? Once, twice? Tatiana Suarez is not a fighter of fortune, she's simply just that good.
Thus far, she has defeated three different UFC champions. In her third UFC fight, she submitted reigning UFC women's flyweight champion Alexa Grasso within two minutes of the first round. In her subsequent bout, she faced two-time strawweight champion Carla Esparza, TKO'ing her after three rounds.
Most recently, she faced the juggernaut of the women's lower classes, Jéssica Andrade, also a former strawweight champion. Yet she couldn't have been an easier foe for Suarez, who outwrestled and out-grappled the brutally strong Andrade to secure a second-round submission win via guillotine choke.
With a tally of three UFC champions on her record, she seems destined for future success. Of the women's fighters who are currently active on the roster, only Valentina Shevchenko has beaten more champions than she has, and only Rose Namajunas and Zhang Weili herself have matched her record of three.
It is no coincidence that all three aforementioned women are either former champions or reigning titleholders. It should come as no surprise to anyone if Suarez continues this trend and crowns herself champion by next year.
Tatiana Suarez's wrestling and grappling skills are on a different level
While Tatiana Suarez isn't one of the few UFC fighters to have won an Olympic medal, fans would be forgiven for assuming as much based on her breadth of wrestling skills. Not even another high-level wrestler like Carla Esparza was able to stop her takedowns when the pair crossed swords.
The same was true for Jéssica Andrade's failed efforts against her, as she too, a strong grappler in her own right, conceded takedowns against Suarez before surrendering to a guillotine choke. As a wrestler, Suarez is as tenacious as they come, drawing comparisons to UFC lightweight legend Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Like him, she is explosive with her takedown entries and chains her takedowns together in a tireless spree. She maintains a low stance that is optimized for level changes and shooting for takedowns, which leaves her opponent hesitant to commit to strikes, lest she duck under a punch for a blast double-leg.
Unlike many wrestlers who are takedown artists with basic top control, Tatiana Suarez is exceptional at grappling transitions, gliding seamlessly from applying classic top pressure to securing better positions on the ground. She even uses the threat of submissions to create openings for ground and pound and vice versa.
Furthermore, she often pins her foe against the fence to limit their space. All the while, she uses underhooks to control their posture and crossfaces to smother them, undercutting most of their offense. As seen with many strong grapplers today, she also triangles her opponent's legs.
To prevent her opponent from scrambling out of position or threatening her with submissions, Suarez often wraps her legs around her foe's, lifting their ankles so they can't push off the mat to improve their position. This forces her foe to try pushing off their hands, but this is ineffective.
Not only does it cause her opponent to burn their arms out as they bear the combined weight of both fighters, but Suarez often traps their wrist with a wrist grip, rendering them one-armed. Combined with her monstrous physical strength, which even Andrade and Esparza struggled against, she is a force of nature.
She may not win a UFC title right away, but if she plays her cards right, championship status is in the future.