Tatiana Suarez did not just beat Virna Jandiroba on Saturday night. She made it look like the title shot was already hers — and then she said so out loud.
Suarez won a unanimous decision over Jandiroba in the co-main event of UFC Vegas 124 at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas, with the judges scoring the strawweight fight 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28. The No. 2 strawweight in the world went straight to work from the opening bell, shooting a single leg in the first seconds, and spent fifteen minutes doing what she does best: outwrestling, outworking and outlanding a woman who had no answer for the pressure. Jandiroba, the No. 3 strawweight, defended takedowns early and kept her balance on one leg more than once, but Suarez took her down again and again and controlled the fight wherever it went.
The win moves Suarez to 13-1 and makes it three straight since she lost her title shot to Weili Zhang. She has beaten Amanda Lemos and Loopy Godinez on this run, and now she has dominated the woman ranked right behind her. Jandiroba falls to 23-5, and her own road back to a title shot just got a lot longer.
The message after the fight was simple. "I want that belt," Suarez said, and she is not wrong to ask. The strawweight title now belongs to Mackenzie Dern, and the winner of Suarez vs. Jandiroba was always positioned as the clear next challenger. Suarez has now made that case as loudly as a fighter can make it without holding the belt — three wins in a row, a shutout of the No. 3 contender, and a direct call for the champion.
The DAOS take: there is a difference between winning a fight and making a statement, and Suarez did both in the same fifteen minutes. Wrestling wins fights, but wrestling like that — relentless, suffocating, with no letup across three rounds — wins title shots. Dern holds the crown. Suarez just spent a Saturday night showing the division exactly how she plans to take it. The strawweight division has its next challenger, and she is not asking politely anymore.
Sources: Sherdog · BJPenn.com · Heavy
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