UFC flyweight and strawweight fighter, Tatiana Suarez, was born on December 19, 1990. Since her childhood, Tatiana wanted to engage in combat sports.
At the early age of 3, Tatiana went to a wrestling competition to watch her elder brother Chris Suarez compete. However, it turned out to be the deciding factor in what career path she would choose. Apparently, she turned to her mother, Linda Padilla, and expressed her wish to become a wrestler.
However, her mother apparently refused to let Suarez enroll herself in a wrestling school. But seeing the passion she had for the sport, her mother finally agreed. American wrestler, Marcie Van Dusen, was the first female wrestler Tatiana witnessed and it sparked her love for wrestling.
Aside from the aforementioned Chris, Tatiana also has two other siblings, Ricky and Julia. Tatiana went to Northview High School and afterward, she went to Lindenwood University. Suarez made her dream come true when she represented America in the Wrestling World Championships and won two bronze medals in 2008 and 2010 respectively. Despite representing America, Tatiana also admitted to having Mexican heritage.
Is Tatiana Suarez married?
Tatiana Suarez is yet to get married. However, she is in a committed relationship with Bellator fighter Patchy Mix. Although it is unknown when they started dating, the couple share pictures of each other on social media platforms on a daily basis. She also appreciates Patchy for supporting her in training for her fight camp and injury rehab.
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Talking about their time together, Tatiana Suarez said, “Me and my boyfriend, after practice, we geek out all the time. We just talk about practice and or MMA, in general. Just the other day, we had a practice, and we were both all excited. We’re like, ‘Oh, that was so much fun.’ And then we’re like, ‘Yeah, we can’t wait for sparring tomorrow.’ It’s just something that we both love to do. It’s our passion.” (h/t via UFC)
Patchy Mix has an MMA record of 17-1. He competes in Bellator’s bantamweight division. He has notable wins over talented fighters like Kyoji Horiguchi, Mogomed Magomedov, and Irish superstar James Gallagher. He only has one loss in his pro career against Juan Archuleta and it was for the vacant bantamweight title. Aside from Mix, Tatiana was reportedly in relationships with Eric Baez and skateboarder Chris Sykes.
What is Tatiana Suarez’s MMA record?
Tatiana Suarez was one of the most highly-rated talents in the world of MMA. She has an MMA record of 8-0. After her amateur wrestling career ended following her thyroid cancer diagnosis, Suarez started to practice Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. BJJ is a gateway to MMA and Suarez followed the path to become a professional Mixed Martial Artist.
Suarez joined the UFC in 2016 after winning TUF 23. Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Claudia Gadelha were the coaches in that particular season. The California native was picked to be a part of Claudia’s strawweight team. She beat Chel-c Bailey, JJ Aldrich, and Kate Jackson inside the TUF house to reach the finals. Suarez fought Amanda Cooper in the final to win the competition.
It marked her debut in the UFC and she beat big names following that. Tatiana Suarez has wins over big-name fighters like Alexa Grasso and the former UFC strawweight champion, Carla Esparza. However, her career had a big setback following a big win against Nina Nunes. Although she was in a great place to earn a potential title shot, neck and knee injuries kept her out of action until February 2023.