Tatiana Suarez-Montana De La Rosa Flyweight Scrap Booked for UFC Fight Night 220

Credit: Dave
Mandel/Sherdog.com Credit: Dave
Mandel/Sherdog.com Credit: Dave
Mandel/Sherdog.com Credit:
Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com

The long-awaited return for Ultimate Fighting Championship contender
Tatiana
Suarez is right around the corner.

On Monday, Sherdog learned from sources that Suarez (8-0) would be
coming back from a nearly four-year layoff to take on Montana
De La Rosa (12-7-1) in February. Suarez, a strawweight
contender before injury kept her on the shelf from mid-2019 through
2022, will be moving to 125 pounds for this matchup. De La Rosa
confirmed Friday on her OnlyFans page that this
fight was official for the Feb. 25 card of
UFC Fight Night 220. She subsequently announced this on her

Instagram Stories not long after the news broke.

Suarez won Season 23 of “The Ultimate Fighter” by submitting
J.J.
Aldrich, Kate
Jackson and Amanda
Bobby Brundage to run through the reality show. After getting
her “six-figure contract,” she strung together four wins over
Viviane
Pereira, Alexa
Grasso, former and future champ Carla
Esparza and Nina Nunes.
This will be Suarez’ first appearance at flyweight since her
three-fight stint in Gladiator Challenge from 2014 to 2015. A
serious neck injury forced her to recover for quite some time, and
she had to withdraw from a slated 2021 outing against Roxanne
Modafferi due to injury as well. In addition to healing, Suarez
appeared on the 16th season of “The Bachelorette,” where she
coached the bachelors in wrestling ahead of a competition for the
men vying for the bachelorette’s affection.

De La Rosa has seen her ups and downs since coming out of the 26th
season of TUF as an unsuccessful quarterfinalist. With a record of
5-3-1 in the Octagon thus far, four of those five victories have
come by stoppage, including a knockout of Ariane
Lipski and a submission of Rachael
Ostovich as she traversed the flyweight division. De La Rosa
has not been finished in the UFC, with decision setbacks to
Andrea
Lee, Viviane
Araujo, and most recently, Maycee
Barber in April 2022. Since Suarez has been away, De La Rosa
stepped into the Octagon six times.

The aforementioned Suarez will not be the only fighter coming back
from a long absence at this fight card. Courtesy of a story from

MMA Junkie on Friday, Alex Reyes
(13-3) will be rejoining the ranks of the UFC for the first time
since 2017. The one-time welterweight – who took the fight on short
notice up a weight class – debuted against Mike Perry
at UFC Fight Night 116, and he succumbed to a knockout in 79
seconds that night. An illness that threatened his ability to walk
kept him sidelined as he recovered, and he has healed up and will
be squaring off against Trevor Peek
(7-0) in the lightweight division. Additionally, Jose
Johnson (15-7) will take on Garrett
Armfield (8-3) at bantamweight, with news of that pairing first
coming from Eurosport
NL also on Friday.

UFC Fight Night 220 goes down at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Feb.
25, with 205-pounders Nikita
Krylov and Ryan Spann
battling it out for a top-10 spot in the main event. The likely
co-headliner will see Andre Muniz
face Brendan
Allen, but the lineup is not yet official and Suarez-De La Rosa
could earn high billing. Other fights on the card include a
featherweight clash between Andre Fili
and Lucas
Almeida, and a 135-pound tussle as Hailey
Cowan debuts against Ailin
Perez.