Tatiana Suarez and Amanda Lemos faced off at Saturday’s Noche UFC in San Antonio in a battle of former strawweight title challengers looking to work their way back.
The fight between the two top five 115lb’ers arrived in the shadow of Jandiroba vs. Dern 2, set to crown a new champion in the wake of Zhang Weili moving up to flyweight to pursue a second title against Valentina Shevchenko. The winner of Suarez vs. Lemos, with the right performance, had a chance to stake their claim to be next in line.
ROUND 1: The fight started in an open stance matchup and Suarez got her kicking game going early to push Lemos to the fence. Around a minute and 20 seconds in, Suarez shot her first takedown attempt, but the Brazilian stuffed it. With both fighters clinching along the fence, a low blow from Suarez put a momentary stop to the bout. The fight then rightfully resumed in open space. Tatiana used a caught a kick to shoot a takedown, but a strong whizzer from Lemos allowed her to get back to her feet. Suarez’s chain wrestling skills allowed her to eventually get Lemos down and end the round on top.
ROUND 2: Lemos came out in the second round and threw a couple hard kicks to Suarez’s lead leg. Feeling the pressure, Tatiana then blitzed forward to push her opponent back to the fence and force a clinch. The Mexican-American got the Brazilian down for a few second, but an improved Lemos found her way back to the her feet. Halfway through the round, Suarez finally took Lemos down in open space. Suarez used her top pressure to threaten a guillotine, but Lemos’ two-on-one prevented it. Despite getting back up, Lemos couldn’t keep Suarez off of her as the betting favourite kept burning time off the clock. With 10 seconds left in the round, Lemos jumped on a ninja choke attempt, but Suarez was wise to it and survived until the buzzer.
ROUND 3: Perhaps thinking she needed a finish, Lemos came out in the third round with increased aggresiveness. She fired a couple right hands and more leg kicks, but despite putting power in her shots, she understood the wrestling threat that was in front of her. Tatiana shot a takedown that Lemos sprawled on, but the chain wrestling eventually did lead to a successful Suarez takedown. After a reversal to get back up, Lemos then landed some solid elbows followed by clean right hands that wobbled Suarez. With Suarez retreating, Lemos then pressed on the gas pedal, but ran out of time.
It was unclear how the beating against Zhang Weili would affect Tatiana Suarez’s confidence. She did get back in the win column, but this was an unconvincing victory for her. Time will tell if the promotion will think this was enough to have her fight the winner of the upcoming vacant title fight.
Official Result: Tatiana Suarez def. Amanda Lemos by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
