Tatiana Suarez spent 15 minutes wrestling Virna Jandiroba on Saturday night, walked out of the Meta APEX with a unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) in the UFC Vegas 124 co-main event, and asked for the strawweight title before the cage door opened.
“I want that belt,” Suarez told Michael Bisping during her post-fight interview. She added that she had just beaten “a really good opponent who arguably did win the belt, so I look forward to the challenge.” Later, according to the UFC’s news account on X, she put a name on it: “I really want to fight Mackenzie [Dern] for the belt.”
The win moves Suarez to 13-1 overall and 10-1 in the UFC. She came in riding a two-fight winning streak, so that’s three straight since her only career loss, a title shot against Zhang Weili at UFC 312. Jandiroba falls to 23-5 (9-5 UFC). She lost to Dern last year with the title Zhang vacated on the line, then bounced back with a decision over Tabatha Ricci.
View post on X
How it played out
Suarez shot a single leg almost immediately, and Jandiroba hopped on one foot for about 30 seconds, Cageside Press noted, before getting back to the fence still standing. That set the tone. Suarez rarely got Jandiroba down on her own terms, but whenever the Brazilian changed levels herself, Suarez reversed and came up on top.
Round 2 looked the same. Suarez landed a knee to the body, chased takedowns along the cage, and eventually took top position off a stuffed Jandiroba shot, where she threatened chokes and mixed in punches. Her scariest moment came right at the horn, when Jandiroba isolated a leg and rolled into a kneebar as time expired.
Jandiroba hunted that kneebar again in the third and used an armbar attempt to reverse position, per MMA Weekly, but Suarez got back on top and finished in full guard throwing short punches and elbows.
View post on X
MMA Fighting called it far from the most exciting fight on the card. Cageside described the whole thing as a grappling match. Neither is wrong.
Suarez sounded happier with it than the crowd did. She called it a good matchup and gave her opponent credit: “She’s excellent on the ground.” She also said, “I had fun. I had a lot of fun out there,” which makes one of us.
What’s next
The rankings math helps her. The latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie strawweight rankings have Suarez at No. 3 and Jandiroba at No. 4, with Zhang at No. 2. MMA Weekly billed the matchup as No. 2 versus No. 3. Either way, MMA Junkie reported that Zhang doesn’t appear to have a timeline for a return, which leaves Suarez standing at the front of the line for Dern (17-5, 12-5 UFC). MMA Fighting floated Dern vs. Suarez as a fight to make in 2027.
View post on X
My take: give it to her. She just beat a top-five former title challenger, she has lost once in 14 pro fights, and the only woman ranked above her has no return date. The fight won’t make anybody’s highlight reel, and Suarez could stand to throw a few more punches from top position against Dern. But the matchmakers can’t pretend there’s a better case on the board, and booking Dern vs. Suarez for the first quarter of 2027 is the obvious call.
