I’ve written a number of times on this site on the absolute wasteland of competition that is the UFC women’s flyweight division. Now, don’t get me wrong here. I don’t use the word “wasteland” because there’s no good fighters at women’s 125, although it’s certainly on the thin side: this is still a division where Maycee Barber and Antonina Shevchenko hold down top 15 spots.

Rather, it’s a wasteland because of the sheer dominance of the woman on top. Valentina Shevchenko – the good Shevchenko – has ruled the division with an iron fist for over two years, and appears just about untouchable. With every fight, she removes herself further and further from us mere mortals. Case in point: last month, when former strawweight champion Jessica Andrade moved up to flyweight for a much-anticipated title challenge in Jacksonville. Strong, explosive, and tested at the highest level of the sport, Andrade promised to be the toughest obstacle Shevchenko had faced as champion. Instead, Shevchenko dominated her utterly, and finished her with ground-and-pound in the second round.

125 is growing more and more desperate for a truly compelling challenger to appear. Luckily, the division might have just gotten exactly what the doctor ordered. You might have seen the news this week: after two years away from the sport, Tatiana Suarez is cleared to fight, and she has her sights set on Shevchenko’s belt.

Suarez has been out of sight, out of mind for the last two years, but the announcement really is huge news for women’s MMA. When last we saw her, the undefeated Suarez seemed on a collision course with Andrade as the next strawweight title challenger. In fact, when Zhang Weili was named Andrade’s next opponent that summer, it actually came with some controversy – many believed that Suarez was more deserving. Zhang knocked Andrade out in just 42 seconds, and Suarez hasn’t fought since.

The cause: a recurring neck injury that she suffered in the lead-up to her fight against Nina Nunes in June 2019, a disc issue that she then aggravated in the early goings of that bout. Suarez battled through the pain to earn a unanimous decision win, although one that was considerably less one-sided than her previous showings in the cage. In the months to come, she was left completely unable to train, and subsequent injuries and medical issues have pushed back her return.

Suarez’s athletic career has been one of glory deferred through no fault of her own. A star wrestler coming up, Suarez won world medals in 2008 and 2010, and was considered one of the United States’ best hopes for an Olympic medal in women’s wrestling in 2012. Instead, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and didn’t make the trip to London.

Suarez transitioned to MMA after making a full recovery, and found that her elite grappling bona fides – she began training in jiu-jitsu after her wrestling career ended, and took to it quite naturally – had set her up beautifully for success. Suarez had only three pro MMA bouts when she earned a UFC contract by dominating the field of The Ultimate Fighter 23 so completely that it was almost laughable.

Over the next two years, Suarez showed the UFC strawweight division what a real world-class grappler looked like. Her true breakout performance happened in Sep. 2018, when she faced Carla Esparza, a former world champion. Esparza had much more MMA experience, and is herself a very tough, gritty and strong wrestler. But as the old saying goes, there’s levels to this. And Carla Esparza was not on Tatiana Suarez’s level.

Esparza has lost a few fights in her time (although not too many), but that had to be the longest, most miserable night of her MMA career. Suarez’s pressure was unstoppable, her top control overwhelming, and her ground-and-pound vicious. She tortured and broke Esparza for nearly 15 minutes before the referee stopped the fight, with less than 30 seconds to go.

Suarez only ever faced any real adversity in her most recent fight, against Nunes, in which it’s been well established that she wasn’t working at 100 percent. Even so, Suarez controlled the first two rounds before fading some in the third – Nunes started to defend her takedowns, and had some strong moments on the feet. Although Nunes won the final round, Suarez was never in danger of losing on the scorecards.

Both the Esparza and Nunes victories came against fighters considered two of the best 115-pounders in the world at the time. The Esparza win, especially, has aged quite well. But Nunes managed to ask some questions about how Suarez will do when she can’t get her takedown, ones that we’ll hopefully see answered as she makes her comeback 10 pounds up.

If Suarez actually is back at 100 percent, the flyweight division will be getting a truly elite ground threat, a smothering wrestler who can finish opponents with strikes or submissions. She’ll instantly become perhaps the division’s most fascinating contender. While she’s moving up in weight, she shouldn’t be noticeably small at 125, and she brings a skillset that can be matched by none except perhaps the champion, a judo black belt who’s herself an extremely powerful grappler.

I’ve long thought that to be a world champion in the UFC, you have to be undeniably special in at least one specific aspect of the sport. As far as wrestling goes, there may not be another woman in the world of MMA as special as Tatiana Suarez. That means that at 125, things might be about to pick up.