UFC 312 is all set to deliver at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney in a matter of hours. The excitement around Sean Strickland vs. Dricus Du Plessis is palpable. However, the clash between undefeated Tatiana Suarez and the reigning strawweight champion Zhang Weili is equally exciting. The Covina, California native will be fighting the Chinese superstar for the strawweight title but is she fit enough to get past Weili?

Well, Zhang Weili is riding a four-fight winning streak and has been dominating her opponents in her title defenses. On the other hand, Tatiana Suarez remains undefeated but has been plagued by severe injuries. Her last fight was canceled due to yet another injury. Given this, let’s take a closer look at her injury history to better assess her ability.

Tatiana Suarez – UFC 310 & Other Injuries

Tatiana Suarez was supposed to fight Virna Jandiroba on the UFC 310 card. However, the fight never materialized as Suarez pulled out of her clash due to her being ill. The actual reason for her disease was never officially declared but according to the people close to the fighter, Suarez had to be pulled out of her clash as her sickness prevented her from competing at UFC 310.

Well, that’s not all, the fighter had previously injured herself which took a significant amount of her time to recover. Suarez was supposed to clash against Amanda Lemos in a pivotal bout on Feb. 17 at UFC 298. That fight, too, never happened as she had to undergo a resting period due to her injured Knee. Talking to the media, Suarez laid bare her thoughts, “The inflammation just never went down.”

She further added, “I had to have my knee drained and there was like 400 [cubic centimeters] of fluid inside my knee, and you’re only supposed to have like three [cubic centimeters] of fluid. So it was quite a bit. And they had given me some stem cells and my knee reacted badly to the stem cells, so then that took some more time. And then I just wasn’t able to train, like, at all.”

Suarez ultimately withdrew from her battle and Mackenzie Dern had to step in to fill her shoes. However, months have passed since that incident and the fighter appears to be ready. Interestingly, Tatiana Suarez had to call out fake news when the reports suggested that she was injured ahead of UFC 310 and not sick.

Tatiana Suarez disputes injury reports

Tatiana Suarez was sick ahead of UFC 310. However, MMA Melotto reported the angle with a rather different approach. The social media handle in Portuguese stated that Suarez was injured and this was the reason for her exit from UFC 310. As soon as Suarez got hold of this news, she refuted it by stating that she was not injured, “I did not get injured. I’m curious where you heard this. Why would you put this out there?” However, she later deleted this.

Her statement invoked confusion among MMA fans, who thought the UFC intentionally withdrew the fight from their banner. However, popular MMA journalist Damon Martin came forward to ascertain that she pulled out due to sickness, not injury: “a health issue that will prevent her [Suarez] from competing in December.”

As the dust settled, Suarez is all geared up to clash against Zhang Weili. While having a conversation with the media, the strawweight division number one contender stated, “I feel great,” Suarez told MMA Junkie. “There’s no injuries. The first one (vs. Lemos) was just like a meniscus. I had to get that repaired, so I did have to go get surgery. The second one (vs. Jandiroba), I just feel like the UFC just wanted this fight to happen.”

Will Tatiana Suarez become the new strawweight queen of UFC or will it be another successful endeavor for Zhang Weili? What are your thoughts about the clash? State your thoughts in the comments below.