MANILA, Philippines – Are we seeing the next dominant woman mixed martial arts fighter in the UFC?
Thirty-two-year-old American Tatiana Suarez humbled former strawweight champion Jessica Andrade with a second round guillotine choke in UFC Fight Night: Sandhagen vs Font last Sunday, August 6, at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
The mixed martial arts event was shown live in the Philippines on the Premier Sports channel on Skycable and Cignal as well as on the TapGo TV streaming application.
While Suarez didn’t look particularly sharp, she was able to achieve whatever she wanted against Andrade.
She got a huge takedown in the first round leading to an advantage in control time.
When Andrade slipped the potential submission to get back on her feet, Suarez was able to get the former into a headlock for an attempted standing guillotine.
Come the second round and flush with confidence since Andrade had nothing to offer, Suarez got the early takedown to force the former champion to tap out.
Suarez was one of five Performance of the Night Awardees alongside Assu Almabayev, Carlston Harris, Diego Lopes and Dustin Jacoby.
Suarez picked up where she left off with her second consecutive win after a lengthy layoff of nearly four years. She returned last February in UFC Fight Night: Muniz vs Allen and submitted Montana De La Rosa with a guillotine choke.
The win placed Suarez in the Top 10 of the division and with another win or two possibly receive a title shot.
It was Suarez’ 10th straight win and first over a former champion. Although Suarez has beaten Carla Esparza and Alexa Grasso, they had yet to win their title belt at the time of their clash.
Nevertheless, it makes Suarez feel good and confident as she climbs the UFC’s strawweight ladder where Zhang Weili is the current champion.
Andrade ignominiously made a women's record for most fights in UFC with 25 when she entered the Octagon against Suarez, but in doing so suffered her third straight defeat.
Suarez was awarded her Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt after the tap out, and she said, "Everyone said, 'How is she going to do against the power of Jessica Andrade?’”
“We showed it tonight: I out-struck her, and I submitted her. I fell in love with jiu-jitsu when I made the transition to MMA. I became a dangerous fighter. I can submit from lots of places. I'm going to fix everything because I can be the champion, because I know I'm the best in the world."