Formally again in UFC title hunt, undefeated MMA vet Tatiana Suarez is aware of who she desires to combat – and who she doesn’t.
Requested about potential matchups, Suarez welcomed a combat with two-time strawweight champ Rose Namajunas, her soon-to-be colleague at 115 kilos after her profitable check at 125 kilos.
“I’m not scared to combat the most effective folks, as a result of which means I’m the most effective, so I might like to combat any person like Rose,” mentioned Suarez on the UFC Vegas 70 post-event press convention after her second-round submission win over Montana De La Rosa. “She’s wonderful striker. She’s wonderful martial artist. She, too, has overcome lots of issues in her life and I respect her as an individual.
“So after I say that I wish to combat them, it’s actually not disrespect. I’m not attempting to be disrespectful. I simply suppose that, I wish to combat all the good folks, you realize what I imply? And it’s out of respect that I wish to do this. I really feel prefer it’s an honor to share a cage with any person.”
Suarez returned from a virtually four-year layoff courtesy of neck and knee accidents. When she left the 115-pound division, she was broadly considered within the hunt for a title shot. Her win over De La Rosa left her with choices for her subsequent problem. However she’d choose to not re-tread outdated floor, disregarding a query a few rematch with ex-champ Carla Esparza, whom she soundly defeated at UFC 228.
“I don’t suppose anyone desires to see me combat carla once more,” she laughed. “Let’s be actual like, it’s like, I might catch a case twice. No, we’re not doing that. [I’m] not saying that she hasn’t improved, however I simply suppose that you just noticed the primary combat, I don’t even suppose that there can be something totally different concerning the second combat with Carla. So let’s simply not do this one.”
UFC President Dana White is uncertain about the place Suarez matches, however he’s totally impressed by her comeback.
“We’ll see the place she results in the rankings and get a pair extra fights below her belt and see what occurs,” he mentioned. “There is no such thing as a doubt … she’s top-of-the-line on the earth. There was lots of discuss on the web and lots of hype about her coming again tonight. Lots of people are excited to see how she was gonna deal with adversity once more, and she or he got here out trying superior.”
One factor was clear after Suarez’s dominant win: She works higher with private emotions invested in her fights. De La Rosa downplayed the hype she introduced into the octagon by saying she had outwrestled smaller opponents in earlier fights. She took that to coronary heart.
“Montana is hard, and I used to be actually honored to share the cage along with her, as a result of she has lots of fights, and she or he accepts actually tough fights, and I actually respect her for getting within the cage with me. I respect anyone who will get within the cage with me no matter what they are saying about me. I feel perhaps she mentioned a few issues that perhaps I didn’t like, however I used to be like, no matter. I did take it to coronary heart just a little bit, however then I used to be like, perhaps it’s gonna construct her up or no matter, make her really feel just a little bit higher.
“I simply attempt to not take issues personally, however I’m a girl, and I generally you get just a little chip on the shoulder when somebody says one thing about us. … I feel she mentioned that perhaps as a result of everyone was so small that I might solely wrestle them as a result of they have been small. Properly, she’s 125-pounder, and I wrestled her and never solely that, however I educated folks with folks a lot larger than her at observe and I can take them down.”
