News Zhang Weili vs. Tatiana Suarez at UFC 312 on Feb 9 for Strawweight Champ

[Better Every Day]

 

[Bubzeh]

The GOAT returns. Nice to see Zhang back in action too.

 

[Thug Rose]

I usually don't watch WMMA but I'm gonna check this one out.

 

[CobraCobretti]

Was this news?

 

[Eric Silva 2.0]

I usually don't watch WMMA but I'm gonna check this one out.

Don't forget Manon is fighting Valentina in April. That one is worth watching as well.
Edit: (this is a rumored fight, it hasn't been officially announced.)

 

[Cameron]

Was this news?

That was my thought, wasn't this already official?

 

[Fergelmince]

Weili ain't a big favorite at -140 to -150ish, if you could even call it that. Gamblers have a lot more confidence in Suarez wrestling than I expected.

 

[Jackonfire]

Good to see you TS. Looking forward to this fight.

 

[Better Every Day]

Weili Zhang vs. Tatiana Suarez UFC 312 Prediction Early Look​

James Lynch
Jan 24, 2025

 

[Better Every Day]

 

[xhaydenx]

Weili ain't a big favorite at -140 to -150ish, if you could even call it that. Gamblers have a lot more confidence in Suarez wrestling than I expected.

It's not surprising to me considering Zhang got outgrappled by Rose. If Rose can outgrapple her, Tatiana definitely can.

 

[Fergelmince]

It's not surprising to me considering Zhang got outgrappled by Rose. If Rose can outgrapple her, Tatiana definitely can.

If you ever watch the fight, you'll see the only exchange that fits your description was in the first half of the rd 5 when fatigue set in. I'm not a zhang fan either.

 

[Dreyga_King of Sherbums]

This is gonna be a very interesting clash of styles. I suspect someone is gonna get utterly dominated in this fight. It won’t even be close. However, I’m not sure who gets dominated.

Then again there still is plenty of time for Suarez to pull out

 

[Safton]

Tatiana hasn't looked the same since her comeback, which is to be expected. She isn't the "female Khabib" anymore who was able to ragdoll girls and explode into fluid and dynamic takedown entries/scrambles before punishing them from the top. Instead she looks very stiff with her wrestling and sort of muscles her way through techniques... and I also find it very worrying that she felt it necessary to jump guillotine against Montana and Andrade.

That said... on-paper Tatiana is still the biggest grappling threat Zhang has faced to date and by a pretty big margin. And Weili's defensive grappling has been sort of hit-or-miss across her career. She looked great against Carla's wrestling attack, but struggled in moments against Rose and Xiaonan. If I had to guess, I would say maybe girls who are able to drag her later into fights, mix it up, give her something to worry about on the feet whilst introducing TDs are an issue... but more one-dimensional wrestlers are something she'll do fine against. But this is total conjecture on my part.

I'm leaning toward Weili, but not with much confidence.

 

[Darkavius]

I hate this fight because if Suarez wins it's just going to end up with Weili fighting for the interim title, because Suarez will be too injured to defend.

 

[Blastbeat]

I hate this fight because if Suarez wins it's just going to end up with Weili fighting for the interim title, because Suarez will be too injured to defend.

i dont want to place blame on Suarez entirely, but its because of her inconsistency that i cant call myself a real fan
sure she's exciting and fun to watch. also very bubbly, nice personality.
but she would absolutely hold the division up. because of that i hope Zhang wins.

 

[xhaydenx]

If you ever watch the fight, you'll see the only exchange that fits your description was in the first half of the rd 5 when fatigue set in. I'm not a zhang fan either.

If you ever watch that fight yourself you'll see that Rose started outgrappling Zhang in the 4th (not the 5th) where she got 2.5 mins of top control time after a ground reversal. Up until that round Rose had stopped more than half of Zhang's tds, which is also grappling. Zhang wasn't able to do enough with her grappling over 5 rounds to win her the fight, while Rose literally won 2 of her 3 rounds via her grappling. I'm not a Rose fan either.

 

[Muay Thai #1]

Suarez is gonna to destroy her. This might be some easy money

 

[Fergelmince]

If you ever watch that fight yourself you'll see that Rose started outgrappling Zhang in the 4th (not the 5th) where she got 2.5 mins of top control time after a ground reversal. Up until that round Rose had stopped more than half of Zhang's tds, which is also grappling. Zhang wasn't able to do enough with her grappling over 5 rounds to win her the fight, while Rose literally won 2 of her 3 rounds via her grappling. I'm not a Rose fan either.

Zhang got 5 out of 11 takedown attempts, and even MOUNTED Namajunas. Namajunas got a takedown in the last 5 seconds of the 1st and in the 5th. Two takedowns is not "outgrappling." There was no "outgrappling" until zhang got fatigued. When you watch the fight you'll see.

 

[Kyojiro Kagenuma]

Zhang got 5 out of 11 takedown attempts, and even MOUNTED Namajunas. Namajunas got a takedown in the last 5 seconds of the 1st and in the 5th. Two takedowns is not "outgrappling." There was no "outgrappling" until zhang got fatigued. When you watch the fight you'll see.

She controlled her for the entire last round.