Tatiana Suarez clarified why she was pulled from UFC 310 to fight for the title.
Suarez was scheduled to face Virna Jandiroba this past December at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, but withdrew due to undisclosed reasons. Many speculated another injury for Suarez, but shortly after, she was booked in a title fight against strawweight champion Zhang Weili in the co-main event of UFC 312 Feb. 8 at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN2, ESPN+).
Suarez (10-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) explains how she ended up challenging Weili (25-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC).
“I feel great,” Suarez told MMA Junkie. “There’s no injuries. The first one (vs. Lemos) was just like a meniscus. I had to get that repaired, so I did have to go get surgery. The second one (vs. Jandiroba), I just feel like the UFC just wanted this fight to happen.
“Why eliminate another title contender? Because after this fight, Virna is going to be fighting Yan Xiaonan and say she wins that fight, that’s either going to be my first title defense or my second, because maybe Weili will want a rematch. So I feel like they did it right.”
Suarez has gone through plenty of adversity in an injury riddled MMA career. However, the thyroid cancer survivor never gave up hope on her pursuit of becoming UFC champion.
“I just knew that eventually this day will come,” Suarez said. “I think because I have that never give up mentality, I just knew that my opportunity will come eventually. I just had to continue to win, and I had to continue to be the type of person that I am, and that’s just to never give up and continue to persevere and go after my dreams.”
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