Las Vegas, NV – UFC flyweight Montana De La Rosa returns to the octagon at UFC Vegas 70 against the also returning Tatiana Suarez on the main card this Saturday night at the UFC APEX.
De La Rosa (12-7-1) has been out of action since her loss to Maycee Barber in April 2022.
“I just had like some injuries, some medical stuff, I had to just take some time off for that,” De La Rosa told reporters on Wednesday.
“I’m back. Healthy.”
Being out for nearly a year was something De La Rosa recognized her body needed in order to get back to 100%.
“Yeah I definitely needed my body to heal, and then I was trying to get a fight for a little bit, and they just kept saying oh wait for this one. So 12 weeks ago they threw out Tatiana and I was like yeah, let’s go,” she said.
Suarez (8-0) was on the rise before a neck and knee injuries took her out of the octagon for nearly four years. The pressure to welcome back one of the rising stars on the roster isn’t something De La Rosa is worried about.
“There’s not any pressure for me. If anything she’s the one with the pressure. I mean everyone says she’s like the next Khabib or the woman Khabib. I think she has a lot of expectations to live up to in this fight,” De La Rosa said.
“Just that she’s a big name you know, she’s undefeated, she kind of is one dimensional. Obviously the best at what she does, but I just feel like there’s a lot of things that I can do in there that she hasn’t seen before,” said De La Rosa.
“Specially when she’s moving up to the flyweight division when she’s just been facing smaller opponents.”
De La Rosa has a point with Suarez moving up from strawweight where she had a considerable size advantage.
“I mean I think she’s physically going to be very strong because she was dominating at 115, but I’m used to very strong opponents. She’s obviously faced Carla (Esparza) who’s a really great wrestler, but she’s so small,” she said.
“I think it’s going to be different when she faces someone who has wrestling background like me as well as good striking, and good Jiu Jitsu as well.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Montana De La Rosa above. De La Rosa faces Tatiana Suarez at UFC Vegas 70 at the UFC APEX on Saturday night.
