Suarez vs Jandiroba Preview: Strawweight Wrestling Meets Submission Craft
Few matchups at strawweight are this cleanly drawn. #2 Tatiana Suarez (13-1-0), the American who also sits #9 pound-for-pound, meets #3 Virna "Carcara" Jandiroba (23-4-0), the Brazilian ranked #11 pound-for-pound, at UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas on Nov. 7. One wins with takedowns, the other with submissions, and the mat is where those strengths collide.
Suarez, 35, wrestles her way there. She averages 4.52 takedowns per 15 minutes, and 54% of her significant strikes land on the ground, with another 16% in the clinch and only 30% standing. When she does strike, she is efficient: 60% accuracy, 2.86 significant strikes landed per minute, and just 1.63 absorbed. Seven of her 13 wins came by submission, four by decision and two by knockout, and she has been on the UFC roster since July 2016.
Jandiroba, 38, who made her Octagon debut in April 2019, is the submission specialist. Fourteen of her 23 wins (61%) came by submission, eight came in the first round, and she averages 1.39 submission attempts per 15 minutes, more than double Suarez's 0.66. Oddly enough, her striking happens mostly on the feet: 79% of her significant strikes land standing and only 8% on the ground. She lands 2.27 per minute and absorbs 2.86, but she is the harder target, with 56% striking defense to Suarez's 44%.
Size favors Suarez slightly. She stands 5-foot-5 to Jandiroba's 5-foot-3 and has a 66-inch reach to 64. Neither has shown much knockout power in the UFC, with knockdown averages of 0.00 and 0.09, and both are used to longer fights, averaging 11:17 and 13:18.
The real battle is the wrestling. Suarez shoots more often (4.52 to 3.13 per 15 minutes), but Jandiroba defends 73% of takedown attempts, while Suarez stops 57%. The deciding question: can Suarez get through that defense and hold top position without giving a 14-time submission winner the opening she needs?
The card opens at 2 p.m. local time at Meta APEX, with the main card at 5 p.m. Grab your seats: Suarez vs Jandiroba tickets.