Tatiana
Suarez is hoping to hear soon from the
Ultimate Fighting Championship about a title shot.
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Weili
Zhang defended her strawweight title with a lopsided unanimous
decision win over fellow countrywoman Yan Xiaonan at UFC
300 earlier this month. While Suarez hasn’t heard from the UFC
yet, she believes she is the next in line for a shot at Zhang.
Suarez also hopes to hear good news from the UFC soon, with her
manager, Ali Abdelaziz, planning to meet with promotion executives
soon.
Suarez believes the only details left to figure out are when and
where would Zhang be ready to fight again. While the UFC is rumored
to be planning a return to Zhang’s home country of China in August,
Suarez noted that it’s unlikely to be a pay-per-view card. The
33-year-old hopes to challenge “Magnum” at the UFC’s one-of-a-kind
card being planned for Mexican Independence Day in September at The
Sphere in Las Vegas.
“Actually, we’re gonna hopefully get some news here soon in the
next couple of days and see how everything goes and see what they
are thinking… I think my manager Ali’s [Abdelaziz] gonna have a
sitdown with them and see what’s going on, just talk about things
and the future of things and we’ll see you know what happens,”
Suarez told ESPN MMA. “I’m not sure I’m supposed to say
that… I heard they’re gonna be in China in August but that’s not a
pay-per-view card. So, I don’t know if maybe like September at The
Sphere kind of thing. That would be amazing, especially because I’m
Mexican and that would be a good fight to have. And knowing Weili,
she might spit out some things in Spanish, make it even better.
Everybody’s gonna love her and everybody’s gonna like me, so then
it’ll be a great fight to have on the card.”
However, Suarez is also open to fighting in China as long as she
gets the title shot. With Zhang’s evolving ground game, Suarez
expects the potential clash to hit the canvas at some point, where
she is confident of a submission win.
“I just think that 100% it will go to the ground at some point.
Whether it’s like she wants to take me down or I want to take her
down,” the 33-year-old said. “It’s been shown that like I have good
takedowns, too. And I think that she might wanna take me down, who
knows, like catch a kick or something, you never know, and then she
can go to the ground. And I’m OK with anything really in terms of
that… I think I get a submission 100%, I think I will sub her.”
After nearly a four-year hiatus plagued by injuries, Suarez scored
consecutive submission wins over Montana
De La Rosa and Jessica
Andrade in her return to action last year. The undefeated
contender was then scheduled to face Amanda
Lemos in a potential tile eliminator but was forced out due to
a knee injury.