Kamaru Usman gave an honest assessment of Tatiana Suarez’s loss at UFC 312.
Suarez (11-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC) was battered in a unanimous decision loss to strawweight champion Zhang Weili this past Saturday in the UFC 312 co-main event at Qudos Bank Center in Sydney.
Outside of an early takedown in Round 1, Suarez repeatedly failed to get Weili on the ground. She was reversed on the mat and outstruck on the feet throughout the fight.
“It didn’t look good, Henry, let me just say,” Usman said on his “Pound 4 Pound” podcast with Henry Cejudo. “I love Tatiana, but that didn’t look great from her. I know she’s better than that.”
Like Suarez, former UFC welterweight champion Usman comes from a strong wrestling background. However, Usman knew that in order to become champion, he had to sharpen his hands, which led to knockout wins over the likes of Colby Covington, Gilbert Burns, and Jorge Masvidal during his title reign.
He didn’t see any confidence from Suarez on the feet.
“You’ve just got to knuckle up and you’ve just got to go make it happen,” Usman said. “It looked like Tatiana’s corner was telling her, ‘Hey, let’s just go make it happen. Stand with her if you have to. Stand with her because maybe that’ll give you an opportunity potentially to get that takedown again,’ and she just, for some reason, she hit that wall and she just didn’t want any part of that standup. She kept going to the takedowns, which she was kind of getting thrown around at one point by Zhang Weili.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 312.
