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Winning With Your Back On The Wall
How Weili Zhang Shut Down Tatiana Suarez's Offense
William
February 11th, 2025
FIRST THINGS FIRST
Welcome to Open Note Grappling.
Every Tuesday morning I send out a breakdown of the best combat sports action. In less than 10 minutes you'll learn how the top fighters win and anything else fighters, martial artists, and fight fans need to know. Click the button below to get the next one sent straight to your inbox (for free).
This week we’re talking about the beating Weili Zhang gave to the elite international wrestler Tatiana Suarez. Weili went head to head with Suarez and stopped 14 of her 15 takedown attempts.
In the premium section we discuss the best action from the whole weekend. The guard passing, leg locks, and back takes we saw at Polaris 31: Team America vs Team Europe.
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Now let’s get into today’s article.
What's In Today's Letter?
Weili Zhang is one of the best women to ever fight in the UFC. She’s taken out all kinds of fighters in her run but she’d never faced an elite wrestler. That changed this weekend.
Zhang was matched against Tatiana Suarez. Suarez has competed internationally, medaling at the World Championships, World Cup, and she even won the Pan American Championships.
But that was 17 years ago. And since Suarez made the switch to the UFC her career has been stop-and-go because injuries and illness. When Suarez was well enough to make the walk to the cage she ran through everyone. Suarez’s rare skill and even rarer physicality gave her 15 wins and 0 losses before she got her title fight.
Could Zhang hang with Suarez? And how would Suarez’s body hold up?
TECHNICAL TAKEAWAYS:
Weili Zhang’s World Class Takedown Defense
Zhang looked like she was in trouble early in the fight. Suarez quickly got her hands locked around Zhang and threw her to the floor.
Zhang lands a side kick to Suarez’s lead leg. When Zhang steps in to throw a 1-2 Suarez ducks in on her hips. Suarez grabs a body lock and her hips are right on top of Zhang’s. Zhang can’t stop Suarez throwing her to the floor. Then Suarez settles into a tight side control. |  Weili Zhang - Tatiana Suarez |
Suarez stayed on top for most of the round but she couldn’t really turn this good start into damage. Suarez could hardly posture up to punch Zhang without Zhang threatening to sit up and escape. Suarez alternated between sitting in half guard and using open body variations to threaten passing Zhang’s guard.
Near the end of the first Suarez slid to side control and Zhang made the most of it.
Suarez is in Zhang’s half guard. Zhang gets a knee shield back in but Suarez hops to side control. Suarez starts to walk towards Zhang’s head to set up a d’arce choke. Suarez moves around and throws some knees to Zhang’s body. This movement gives Zhang space to turn to turtle. Suarez jumps on a guillotine but ends up on bottom. |  Weili Zhang - Tatiana Suarez |
Here we see a bit of a worrying habit.
Suarez has a nasty front head lock. She uses it to take people down and before Zhang she finished back to back fights with guillotine chokes. But giving up control to jump on a guillotine against a world class champion like Zhang just isn’t the smartest thing to do early in a fight.
As time wore on we saw Zhang get her defense in order to shut Suarez down. In all of these fence exchanges pay attention to how Zhang alternates between lifting Suarez off of her hips, and pushing Suarez’s head out of position.
Suarez shoots and pushes Zhang to the fence. Zhang spreads her base and alternates between under hooking Suarez’s arm and pushing Suarez’s head off line. Suarez is committed to locking her hands but she’s stuck with her hips way behind her head. As Suarez tries to lift Zhang Zhang throws her down with a hard cross face. |  Weili Zhang - Tatiana Suarez |
Look at Suarez’s hips above. She’s completely bent over and her hips are way far behind.
In the the first round, Suarez was able to get her hips in on top of Zhang’s immediately. That gave her the quick takedown.
Against the fence, Zhang was able to spread her base, pull Suarez up with under hooks, and fight Suarez’s head positioning to stop the shots. Then Suarez was left burning energy trying to muscle her way into the takedowns.
Suarez is committed to the double leg but her hips are really really far back. Zhang keeps her base wide and lifts Suarez off her hips with an under hook. When Zhang break’s Suarez’s hands open they trade knees. Zhang pushes Suarez’s head up, knees her in the gut, and then escapes off the fence. |  Weili Zhang - Tatiana Suarez |
When Zhang did get space she made the most of it. Look at this beautiful boxing on the breaks.
Suarez is in on Zhang’s hips. Zhang lifts Suarez up with an under hook and digs a knee in behind it. Zhang digs an under hook again and puts her forehead under Suarez’s chin. Suarez throws a knee and Zhang starts to move off the fence. Zhang whips Suarez’s chin around with a punch combo then skips off the fence. |  Weili Zhang - Tatiana Suarez |
By the later rounds Suarez’s overcommitment bit her in the ass.
Suarez walks through Zhang’s 1-2 to grab a clinch. Zhang uses Suarez’s forward momentum to plant Suarez with an inside trip. When Suarez tries to roll through Zhang posts over Suarez’s head and spreads her base. Now Suarez is stuck carrying Zhang’s weight. |  Weili Zhang - Tatiana Suarez |
By the end of the fight Suarez had nothing left to finish her shots. She was eating punches and stuck outside of Zhang’s takedown defense.
Suarez ducks Zhang’s right for a double. Zhang sprawls and meets Suarez with a cross face. Then she sneaks in some knees right hands. Zhang tries another inside trip. Suarez pushes Zhang to the fence to pick up a single. Zhang whizzers, gets her leg outside, and fights the hands. Then Zhang puts her forehead under Suarez’s chin. When they break Zhang hits Suarez a few times for good measure. |  Weili Zhang - Tatiana Suarez |
That’s just textbook MMA wrestling defense. Zhang made Suarez work, hit her several times, and then started striking on the breaks before overextending herself. Magnificent.
But Zhang’s performance wasn’t flawless. She missed a fully locked arm triangle choke.
Zhang is holding Suarez’s waist. She punches her arm up to wrap Suarez’s head and arm for the arm triangle choke. She stays in half guard to finish it. That’s not necessarily wrong, but her head is way to high. Suarez eats it and gets back to closed guard. |  Weili Zhang - Tatiana Suarez |
This is now the second time in back to back fights this has happened. I’ve had the pleasure of working with one Zhang’s scouts in the past. After Zhang’s last fight I wrote this article about Zhang’s arm triangle and what she can do to improve it.
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Zhang has no one left in the division. Barring a quick knockout and a sketchy decision both to Rose Namajunas, she has been perfect in the UFC.
At this point Zhang should move up to fight Valentina Shevchenko. That’s one of the most compelling fights in WMMA and both are near the end of their career. It’s the perfect time, and could be the perfect end to a career for either of them.
Overall UFC 312 wasn’t the best card. It certainly wasn’t the best event from this weekend. So before we get out of here today I want to review the best action from this weekend, Polaris 31: Team North America vs. Team Europe.
If you want to study how the best grapplers from Europe are innovating professional jiujitsu upgrade to the Premium Notebook.
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LINKS, INSTRUCTIONALS, AND MORE MATCHES TO STUDY:
What Are We Talking About Today?
Weili Zhang again got close to finishing the arm triangle. Click here to watch one of the clearest free videos on setting and finishing arm triangle.
Zhang hit a beautiful inside trip on Tatiana Suarez. You can watch Satoshi Ishii teach it here.
If you want a good overview of defensive cage wrestling similar to what Zhang was doing against Suarez click here.
THE MOST IMPORTANT NEWS (you might have missed)
The man who ESPN once thought of as maybe the greatest prospect in MMA history is now a free agent. Aaron Pico is out of PFL/Bellator and Dana White is interested.
Nicky Rod had two major match announcements. He’s taking on Kaynan Duarte at WNO a month after he goes against Victor Hugo in UFC FPI.
Brandon Moreno and Steve Erceg are headlining the UFC’s return to Mexico City on March 29th.
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