During the broadcast of the final UFC pay-per-view event of 2024, UFC 310, the next women’s strawweight title fight was announced to be Zhang Weili defending her title against Tatiana Suarez at UFC 312 in Australia.
Suarez has been viewed by a not-insignificant portion of the fanbase to be the heir apparent to the 115-lb throne for at least five years, with her freestyle wrestling background and undefeated record making her seem inevitable.
However, the former medalist at the World Wrestling Championships, as well as gold medalist of the Pan-American Games and World IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championships, had years of her career taken away due to injury.
Since returning to the UFC octagon in 2023, Suarez won one flyweight fight and a strawweight fight against former champion Jessica Andrade before another injury took another year of her career.
The promotion attempted to schedule the American wrestler against BJJ expert Virna Jandiroba for the selfsame card where this fight was announced, UFC 310. After that fight got canceled, the UFC clearly pivoted to this booking as champion Zhang Weili had no other contender available save for Jandiroba.
Weili is a two-time women’s strawweight champion; she defended the belt once the first time around before losing to Rose Namajunas, but has since regained the belt and defended it twice.
The pound-for-pound great Chinese champion did defend her belt the last two times against strikers Yan Xiaonan and Amanda Lemos, so Suarez will be a new challenge entirely.
This fight will serve as the co-main event at UFC 312 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia on February 8th, 2025. Dricus du Plessis vs. Sean Strickland will main event.
