Has Tatiana Suarez lost a step?

[ineverpost]

Fight proves very little, Andrade has looked terrible in grappling against anyone who knows what they are doing. Title shot will be going to the winner of Blanchfield vs Santos. Guessing Suarez will get the loser of Valentina vs Grasso 2. Valentina would be a much tougher test for her, I don't think Grasso fares well against a powerful technical wrestler.

 

[Paul E Gensinger]

You know who else were former champions? Anthony Pettis, Tyron Woodley, and BJ Penn, and look at how their MMA careers ended up.

Wut.
That happens to nearly everyone.
Chuck, Anderson Silva, Fedor.

 

[Jinx_AA]

Yes she’s not as dominant as before her injury

but

she still has the size and wrestling advantage over just about any woman fighter in the division

her Vs blanchfield or dern would be interesting to watch …. Would she want to take them down ? I assume so because it’s her bread and butter but it would be interesting to see her wrestling skills Vs their bjj skills ….

 

[Furious77]

Fight proves very little, Andrade has looked terrible in grappling against anyone who knows what they are doing. Title shot will be going to the winner of Blanchfield vs Santos. Guessing Suarez will get the loser of Valentina vs Grasso 2. Valentina would be a much tougher test for her, I don't think Grasso fares well against a powerful technical wrestler.

Wrong division my guy. We talking 115 right now.

 

[Furious77]

As someone with a chronically bad neck that is likely no where near as fucked up as hers was/is, it amazes me that she's managed to come back to competition at all.

But I can't see how she can be the same as before. Might still be enough, but Weili is probably as stylistically difficult as it gets for her at SW. Lots of people pointing to Dern, but I think the wrestling disparity tips it in Suarez's favour.

Yeah similar to how Volk and Islam went, it seems like it would be hard to wrangle her in. Weili is a pretty exceptional athlete so I'd imagine closing the distance on her would be hard. I've never seen Tatiana shoot that double from so far out. She recovered well but It just got me thinking how dangerous it is to do something like that against Zhang and how would she actually close the distance if Weili decided keep range and target her knee.

 

[Furious77]

Zhang KOs her inside 3,her wrestling will never be as good as Saurez but will be at the level to not get wrestlefucked and she definitely isn't getting subbed, Zhangs speed and power will be a huge problem

Well she can definitely sub her but she can't chase the sub. I just think the hardest part is gonna be how does she close the distance responsibly and not telegraph her shots. She needs to use her jab.

 

[SalvadorAllende]

What? She just manhandled Andrade.

 

[aerius]

Suarez has never been a particularly fast or explosive fighter, I just went back and watched her fight vs. Carla and she hasn't lost a step at all. Her wrestling & grappling is just as good as before and her footwork & striking has definitely improved. She might look slower since she's fighting more athletic opponents these days, but she isn't.

 

[chillyoo]

She looked great, tapped a former champ without even locking her hands in.

She could win the belt, just has to get the fight to the ground and she’s been able to do that pretty much her whole career injury or not

 

[Safton]

As someone with a chronically bad neck that is likely no where near as fucked up as hers was/is, it amazes me that she's managed to come back to competition at all.

But I can't see how she can be the same as before. Might still be enough, but Weili is probably as stylistically difficult as it gets for her at SW. Lots of people pointing to Dern, but I think the wrestling disparity tips it in Suarez's favour.

I think both are tough match-ups for her. Weili is self-explanatory, but against Dern the wrestling disparity might allow her to keep it standing... but even then I'm not convinced she's the better (or at least more dangerous/aggressive) striker than the version of Mackenzie we've seen lately. I guess she could try to take Dern down and control top position, but that's a dangerous game to play. I mean Dern's BJJ has been proven lately to not be totally infallible lately as girls are surviving bad spots on the mat with her... but it only takes one bad decision. Even in Tatiana's prime she never really faced any legitimate submission specialists.

I think she'd be live in both fights, though.

 

[fortheo]

Athletically, she definitely has lost a step. She is no longer in her physical prime and had tons of serious injuries, so it isn't surprising.

 

[fortheo]

I think both are tough match-ups for her. Weili is self-explanatory, but against Dern the wrestling disparity might allow her to keep it standing... but even then I'm not convinced she's the better (or at least more dangerous/aggressive) striker than the version of Mackenzie we've seen lately. I guess she could try to take Dern down and control top position, but that's a dangerous game to play. I mean Dern's BJJ has been proven lately to not be totally infallible lately as girls are surviving bad spots on the mat with her... but it only takes one bad decision. Even in Tatiana's prime she never really faced any legitimate submission specialists.

I think she'd be live in both fights, though.

Dern's bottom game is also better than her top game in my opinion, but we rarely get to see her on bottom in MMA. That's part of why I want to see that fight. It gives me Askren vs. Maia vibes.

 

[Furious77]

Dern's bottom game is also better than her top game in my opinion, but we rarely get to see her on bottom in MMA. That's part of why I want to see that fight. It gives me Askren vs. Maia vibes.

Except Askrens top game wasnt really good and he intentionally put himself in really bad positions to create scrambles. Tatiana has heavy top pressure, there's potential of her getting caught when she started hunting submissions. That being said Dern puts herself in really bad positions herself. It is an interesting matchup.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

Suarez would throw Zhang out of the cage

 

[fortheo]

Except Askrens top game wasnt really good and he intentionally put himself in really bad positions to create scrambles. Tatiana has heavy top pressure, there's potential of her getting caught when she started hunting submissions. That being said Dern puts herself in really bad positions herself. It is an interesting matchup.

Askren's top game was more proven than Suarez's to be honest. Suarez has faced many good stylistic match ups for her -- mostly strikers or other wrestlers. Nobody with a botton game or submission game worth a damn.

 

[Safton]

Askren's top game was more proven than Suarez's to be honest. Suarez has faced many good stylistic match ups for her -- mostly strikers or other wrestlers. Nobody with a botton game or submission game worth a damn.

I looked at Tatiana's resume the other day and realized how right you were on this. Suarez's best win over a submission specialist is.... Montana? And she's very much more of a wrestler with solid positional grappling/BJJ top game.

I mean who else is there? Andrade is technically a Black Belt and has quite a few subs on her record, too, but that's across a hella long career and most of those are opportunistic front headlocks created in weird scrambles/striking exchanges. I don't think anyone would ever consider her a submission specialist in MMA. Esparza has half-as-many subs as de la Rosa and her game is basically the same as Montana's, albeit she arguably focuses even more on the wrestling than the BJJ.

 

[Furious77]

Askren's top game was more proven than Suarez's to be honest. Suarez has faced many good stylistic match ups for her -- mostly strikers or other wrestlers. Nobody with a botton game or submission game worth a damn.

Lol I guess, every Askren fight I saw was him twisting, diving,and squirming in and out of ridiculous positions.

 

[Safton]

Lol I guess, every Askren fight I saw was him twisting, diving,and squirming in and out of ridiculous positions.

That's pretty much what his style was built around even back when he was wrestling. He lacked some of the raw, explosive power and athleticism of other guys, but he had an unconventional/unorthodox style which is referred to in collegiate wrestling circles as "funky" (hence his nickname). What he was doing often flew in the face of textbook wrestling fundamentals, but the scrambles he was capable of creating worked for him, his body type, and his pace. He brought elements of that into his MMA game.

 

[Adamant__]

Dern's bottom game is also better than her top game in my opinion, but we rarely get to see her on bottom in MMA. That's part of why I want to see that fight. It gives me Askren vs. Maia vibes.

And we know how that ended

 

[Furious77]

That's pretty much what his style was built around even back when he was wrestling. He lacked some of the raw, explosive power and athleticism of other guys, but he had an unconventional/unorthodox style which is referred to in collegiate wrestling circles as "funky" (hence his nickname). What he was doing often flew in the face of textbook wrestling fundamentals, but the scrambles he was capable of creating worked for him, his body type, and his pace. He brought elements of that into his MMA game.

Yeah my initial point was Tatiana doesn't wrestle anything like Askren.