It was a bad night for Tatiana Suarez at UFC 312.
Going into her first shot at UFC gold, the previously unbeaten Suarez was favored to come out on top in her co-main event clash with reigning strawweight queen Zhang Weili. Unfortunately for Suarez, it wasn’t meant to be. Despite her best efforts, the Covina, California native surrendered a decisive unanimous decision victory to ‘Magnum’ after failing to unleash her wrestle-heavy attack throughout the five-round affair.
Adding insult to injury, Suarez suffered a nasty knee injury during a takedown attempt at the 4:21 mark of the second round. Suarez appeared to snag her knee where the cage meets the canvas, resulting in a gory gash opening up.
Tatiana Suarez reveals her stitched up knee following UFC 312
In between rounds, Suarez refused to look at the cut but she could be heard asking her corner how bad it looked. Suarez’s team did their best to assure her that it wasn’t serious.
As it turns out, the injury was pretty serious. Not long after releasing her first statement following her disappointing loss in Australia, she offered fans a look at her freshly stitched knee.
Suarez’s loss to Zhang Weili was the first of her career, dropping her to 10-1 overall and ending her decade-long run as an undefeated fighter.
As for Zhang, the Chinese superstar successfully defended her strawweight title for the third time during her current reign. Overall, it was her sixth career title fight win in the division, tying her with Joanna Jędrzejczyk for most title fight wins in UFC strawweight division history.
After working her way through much of the contender’s list at 115, a clash with reigning flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko could be in Zhang’s future.
