[TV static drones]
[bright tone]
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[pensive music]
♪ ♪
What's your name?
Tatiana Suarez.
Come on, Tatiana!
- I believe that I'm the best in the world.
I believe it with everything I have,
with every atom in my body.
- She's such a dominant figure.
Suarez is on another level.
- You haven't seen this kind of dominance in female MMA
in a long time.
- Tatiana Suarez is one of the great what-ifs in MMA history.
We all thought, like, she's gonna be a champion.
- But life has thrown a lot of shit at her.
Tatiana Suarez, at one point
a U.S. Olympic hopeful in wrestling.
Those plans were derailed with a serious injury
which revealed something much larger than that.
But she's overcome it all.
- I've been through hell and back.
I've overcome a lot.
I'm never gonna stop till I'm at the top.
This is my passion.
This is what I feel like I was put here to do.
But I was off for a very long time.
You just think to yourself, like,
will I be the same Tatiana?
Will I be the same athlete?
- The former wrestling prodigy returns
after a nearly four-year layoff.
Can you try it one more time?
- Try a guillotine with it. - Yep.
- Everybody saw so much potential in me, you know.
Now after everything that I've gone through...
- Fighting out of Rancho Cucamonga, California...
It's finally my time.
Tatiana Suarez!
- You all right? - Yeah.
I didn't start MMA
like I want to be second, third best.
I wanna be the UFC Champion,
and I truly, truly believe that since I stepped on the mat.
When I'm out there, it's like we're playing chess or poker,
and I have the best hand.
People call it mixed martial arts,
and it's, like, to me it is an art.
It's like a way to express yourself.
- Hey! [bell dings]
Dude.
- I've always been a competitor.
I've always had the drive and the ambition
and the work ethic.
I can't explain it.
I've done it since I was a kid.
[soft music]
♪ ♪
- Tatiana was always very, very active.
Always wanted to be the center of attraction.
[Tatiana giggling]
She was always just a little rebel rouser.
all: ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday ♪
Chris, get your head down!
- Tatiana used to always go to her brother Chris's
wrestling practices and was very observant.
We were at a tournament,
and she said, "I wanna wrestle too."
And I was like, "Girls don't really wrestle."
- And Tatiana's always been somebody who,
when she wants something, she's gonna do it.
So she was wrestling boys.
She had little fluffy socks on.
She had a little high ponytail, her bangs,
and she'd get out there and she'd just...
whack! Put these kids to their backs.
She would get up and smile.
- I just fell in love with wrestling from a young age.
[laughs]
- We have a saying in wrestling.
You gotta have a little bit of dog in you.
Tatiana's a dog.
It's that Mexican blood.
It runs deep.
Come on, Tatiana!
- When I was 12 years old, I made up my mind
that I was gonna be an Olympic champion.
Yeah!
- When I got to high school, I just kept
that same goal in my head.
- She didn't go to her graduation.
She didn't go to the prom.
Most of the time, if there was a dance at school,
there was some wrestling tournament that she was at.
So she gave up a lot of stuff.
- Everything was about wrestling
and reaching my goal.
- She was wrestling some of the best boys in California.
And, you know, even though they were young,
Tatiana's, like, skill levels were, like, off the charts.
That girl was not going to lose.
[whistles trilling]
She became kind of the poster child for women's wrestling,
and she meant a lot to Northview.
- I was the number one girl in the nation at the time.
I wasn't even near my prime.
I was just beginning my career as an athlete.
Wrestling's an individual sport,
but it takes a lot of support.
And I think Northview, in general,
all the coaches on the staff
not only molded me as a wrestler,
but as a person as well.
[gentle music]
♪ ♪
I'm very, very fortunate that I can go back
and help out and still be part of the Northview family.
- This is one of our own right here, Tatiana Suarez.
She started here.
She was the first four-time state champion.
She's kicked a lot of these boys' butts in this program.
And we're so lucky and blessed to have
a world team member here in our gym, man.
Give her another hand, guys. Give her another hand.
[applause]
- Tatiana Suarez is Northview royalty on the girls,
and even on the boys side.
She was one of the pioneers, I would say,
of female wrestling in California
and around the country.
Wrestle!
- I wanna get my elbow back here, right?
That's the defense, right?
- She wrestled in the boys room, which was tough.
Our boys room is traditionally a championship program.
- I step forward, and then that gives me enough room.
That gives my body enough room.
- Tatiana Suarez is pretty much a legend.
It's always really exciting whenever
she comes to work out with us.
When I first started wrestling,
there was a Northview camp, and she came to speak.
And I think that, especially me just starting to wrestle
and not seeing very many girls in wrestling,
someone's actually made a name for themselves,
and that was just kind of the biggest eye opener
of like, wow, this is really something that I could do.
- I really try to have that mentality like Tatiana.
Everything that she has done
I feel like I wanna follow in her footsteps.
I'm gonna pressure forward.
As soon as she pressures back, I'm going to throw that by.
Okay?
- Wrestling's not for everybody.
You have to have a strong spirit, strong mind,
and you have to be willing
to take disappointment here and there.
And to see how many kids have gone through here
and become successful adults from all kinds of backgrounds,
it's unbelievable.
- Women's wrestling is-- is still fairly new.
- All right, you're going, right?
Let her grab your neck. Let her grab your neck.
- The culture is much more accepted now
than it was years ago.
When I started taking Tatiana to national level tournaments,
there was only, I think, five colleges
in the United States that supported girls wrestling,
that had teams.
And it's gotta be close to 100 now.
- It's one of the fastest-growing sports
in the United States, so-- which is amazing, man.
- So you're gonna go ahead, you're gonna pressure.
She goes, pressures back, and I'm here.
I just want to inspire them,
especially being a Latina myself.
You know, I live in California. There's a lot of Latinas here.
The entire roster is Latina.
And it feels good to be able to help them
because a lot of old-school Mexicans,
they don't think that women should do a sport.
[all clap]
What I love to do is to show that you can still be a woman
and be successful because of wrestling,
'cause of fighting, and so can their daughters,
and so can their granddaughters.
- It's the American dream, you know?
The idea of our parents was for them and their children
to have better lives here in this country,
and through hard work and sport,
they're gonna get these opportunities
like getting to go to college.
You set a foundation, and you could just build upon that
for entire generations.
- I came from a culture where girls sports,
they're not very common.
But my brothers were in wrestling,
and I was like, wow, that is really cool.
I really wanna try that.
- My confidence level, I think it definitely has gone up,
and that's what a lot of people tell me, too,
like especially, like, my mom and, like, my teammates.
They're like my second family.
- It's definitely the best feeling knowing that
we're there for each other.
I have my best friends that are going through the same thing
or have gone through the same thing.
- I think everyone in the room always pushes each other.
Everyone goes 100% in our lives.
Wrestling has given me
basically everything, I would say.
If I'm wrestling, I let all my frustration and anger out,
and it brought me out of my shell a lot.
- Vikings on three, one, two, three.
- all: Vikings! - We don't break.
- all: We break people! - Amen.
Yeah.
- We don't break; we break people.
That's our motto that no matter what we go through,
we won't break.
When I was 17 years old,
I was the four-time national champion.
I had a lot of pressure on me
'cause I wanted to be an Olympic champion.
But I feel like I flourish when there's pressure on me.
I don't feel like I run from it.
My entire life, people told me
that I shouldn't wrestle because I was a girl,
that I shouldn't be there 'cause I was a girl.
It fuels me when people doubt me.
It makes me feel like I have to prove them wrong.
[folksy music]
♪ ♪
- Tatiana made the world team when she was 17 years old.
That was kind of, like, unheard of.
And when I took her to the U.S. Nationals,
she actually defeated the defending national champion.
- Wrestling's the first sport. It's the original sport.
This is the oldest sport in the Olympics.
Tatiana was a great, great competitor.
And she was very young,
and she jumped on to the senior level.
Because she was so competitive, she just rose very quickly
because she was not gonna get pushed back down.
- There were no Latinas on the American team,
so I felt very proud to be the first Latina
to represent Team USA.
Terry saw just so much potential in me,
and he put a lot of time into me.
- I think Tatiana was really going to be
an Olympic champion.
She's that kind of an athlete.
Some people come in wanting to win, you know.
Tatiana came in needing to win, right?
And there's a difference.
Failure wasn't an option.
♪ ♪
- So what's up, man? How's your body feel, man?
I feel good.
- Like you feel like you're ready to go or what?
I started sparring.
Before that, I was just, like, wrestling and doing jiu jitsu.
'Cause I'm like, I wanna train hard, obviously,
but then I'm nervous.
- You only really need to train hard two,
maybe three days out of the week.
You know what I mean?
- But I train hard. Like... - I know, there's no--
- But that's what I'm telling you,
is that you need to change it, dude.
You know what I mean? Like, you got this decade left.
- I had a really good relationship with my brother.
We were really close growing up.
- The saying is, is that a wrestler
will go through the wall, and the jiu jitsu guy
will find the fastest way to go around the wall.
Instead of going through the wall,
which you've always done, you've gotta go
kind of like up the wall, but, like, sideways.
Yeah.
I grew up in a single-parent home.
My dad left when I was seven years old.
He was supposed to pick me up from my birthday.
We were going to Disneyland.
And he just never came.
- I remember driving in the car with her and the radio was on,
and some Hispanic music would come on, and she'd say,
"Change it. Change it. Turn it off."
And she'd get tears in her eyes
because it would remind her of her dad.
- My mom had to pick up the slack.
And my brother being there helped a lot
just because I didn't have a father figure around.
- I kind of helped raise Tatiana.
Changed diapers, fed her.
She was my little buddy.
- He was not old enough to be my dad,
but he was old enough to look out for me.
- All right, one crispy burger coming up.
I just wanted to be that person for her
that her dad never was.
That's when Tatiana and I was like--
How come you're not eating?
I'm not hungry.
- Maybe the reason why is because growing up,
I never had anybody else looking out for me.
And I was always the one looking out
for everybody else.
[pensive music]
- When you're a single mom, that can be very hard.
I got pregnant when I was 15 with Chris.
My mom basically wanted me to have an abortion
'cause she thought that would be the best thing.
And in my heart, that wasn't something that I wanted to do.
I bought a mobile home in El Monte
when Chris was five.
And then I had Tatiana shortly after.
- But there was just a lot of uncertainty at home.
We didn't have a very stable household
when we were younger.
- I wanted to be a pediatrician.
[voice breaking] I had good grades and...
did well in school.
I was valedictorian of my junior high.
I'm sorry, guys.
- I dropped it. - God, Daddy can't you--
- My stepdad was abusive towards my mom physically.
He was abusive towards her verbally.
- There was a couple times when he would hit me
or, like, do things to me.
- He would just say that he was gonna get his gun
and kill her.
He would do that often. It wasn't even just once.
But because of this abuse,
she didn't do well at expressing--
I don't know if it was anger or frustration
or whatever it may be.
- Lisa's reactions when they were wrestling
a lot of times were too much.
[whistles trilling]
It meant too much to her that they did well.
Again! Again!
Make him cry!
- Winning was a priority to my mom.
There was no option.
It was hard. It was hard.
Shit, like, you better fucking win,
or I'm gonna fucking this,
almost like the fear of God in you.
- I remember one time, I had lost at this tournament.
My brother was like, oh, I'll go with you guys.
And I was like, wow, my mom's, like--
like, she's really dealing with me losing pretty well.
Like, usually she's, like, really upset, you know?
I knew she was treating me differently
because my brother was there.
And then, finally, we went to my grandma's house
and we dropped my brother off.
I remember feeling, like, my heart sink
'cause I knew that, like--
I knew it was coming, you know,
like, I knew she was gonna be mad.
So he got out the car, and immediately,
uh, she hit me.
Growing up, I was very resentful towards my mother.
I always wanted to prove her wrong and also make her happy.
And like, I just felt like I could never
live up to her standards.
It was hard, you know, because you only want love
and stuff from your parent.
- I just tried to be the protector.
I wanted her to be safe.
I tried my best.
I don't know if my best was good enough.
Chris Lopez.
[cheers]
- As I got older and I went away to college,
I grew up and she was still little.
I remember a tough conversation we had on the phone
when I was in college.
And she called, and she was crying because I was gone.
And she asked why I left her.
She goes, "Why did you leave me?"
I felt responsible.
I'll always remember her voice
and her crying when she said that.
Turn, babe, turn!
Turn, babe!
I loved wrestling so much.
It was a great escape for me.
All the energy that I had was put into wrestling
and being successful at that.
Tatiana Suarez.
Whoo!
- And I think that helped me get through
a lot of the pain that I felt.
You know, it's like everybody, throughout their life,
they find things to help them cope,
and mine was wrestling.
I guess that's how all of this started for me.
- It's pretty often that people find wrestling
as a sport prepares you for life.
It prepares you for all these ups and downs,
all these wins and losses,
and it's just about how you face them
and how you look at them.
I struggled a lot with my mental health
all throughout high school.
I was dealing with anxiety and depression.
I didn't realize how bad things were
until about when COVID started to hit,
all the feelings of just being alone.
Everyone can have a different story, but for me,
wrestling definitely helped my mental health.
It was a reason to get out of bed.
Wrestling definitely brought me up
out of that hole that I put myself in
and that hole that was created for me.
And I was able to just keep going forward.
- If I were to talk to my younger self,
I just would say that you're destined for greatness.
And things are gonna be hard,
but you're always gonna figure out a way.
When I was representing Team USA,
they wanted me to live at the OTC.
I was glad to go live there.
Once I left, I was happy to be gone.
My mom, we didn't really have, like, a relationship.
We barely even spoke.
I didn't really come back for Thanksgiving or Christmas.
But I really enjoyed living at the OTC
just because all you do is,
you eat, sleep, and breathe wrestling.
And that's who I am.
- Here we go, second round at the World Championships.
- I started wrestling internationally,
and I was doing so well.
I won a World bronze medal at 17 years old.
So in my mind, I was going to be an Olympic champion.
I just needed to mature as an athlete,
and it was just a matter of time.
[speaking French]
We had the French Open.
I noticed that my neck was hurting.
I felt, like, a tingling down my face, my arm.
[apprehensive music]
During the warm-up, I remember thinking to myself,
man, like, how am I supposed to
make it through this tournament?
But I ended up just, like, destroying her.
And I remember being so proud just because I had made
that mental switch from negative to positive
in matters of, you know, minutes.
And I ended up winning the French Open.
And then we flew back.
- We noticed that she's always, like, twitching,
and she's always, like,
raising her shoulder and like this.
And--and I was like, we gotta get this checked out.
Something's going on.
I was at practice, and I shot in,
and I, like, couldn't move, you know, for like,
I don't know how long it was.
It couldn't have been longer than a few seconds.
But I could not move, and I just remember, like,
feeling like it felt like forever.
- Her neck locked up, and she let out a scream.
And it scared her, I think, to the core.
Like, you know, nobody wants to be paralyzed, right?
- They ended up calling the ambulance,
and I just thought they would be like, yeah, you're fine.
You know, like, we gotta do this, maybe we gotta do that,
and you can go out and wrestle again.
But my spine was deviated.
- A neck injury is--it's just debilitating for a fighter.
From a simple subconscious level of wondering,
oh, my gosh, is this that last millimeter?
Is this that final one that puts me in a wheelchair
the rest of my life?
- They told me, "You shouldn't wrestle anymore.
We really think that you could become paralyzed."
She went home after that,
and she never did come back to the sport.
- But the neck injury actually saved her life.
- I had to see a specialist for my neck,
and because of the diagnosis, there was images,
and they saw a mass on my thyroid.
And I got my biopsy done and stuff,
and it ended up being cancerous.
- When you hear "cancer," it's scary, man.
I was devastated.
I was scared for her.
- She kept a lot of stuff to herself,
but you could tell by the way she was acting
and the way she was that--
that it was hard for her to deal with.
- She kind of went into the dark.
Literally like the lights turned off.
It's gone.
- I didn't want them to be worried,
so I dealt with it on my own.
♪ ♪
I definitely experienced a lot of depression.
I felt, you know, like, helpless, alone.
At times I contemplated suicide, you know?
It was hard for me because I had to fight
a disease that could kill me.
But then I felt like I didn't want to be there
because I didn't have wrestling.
I ended up having to get my thyroid taken out.
But it also spread to, like, my lymph nodes
and towards my lungs and stuff,
so they had to take out some of my lymph nodes as well.
- The primary job of the thyroid
is to regulate your metabolism.
So you can imagine having this piece
that runs how much energy you have,
when to recover, when to relax, how many calories you burn,
your weight mass, just being gone.
It's really difficult for a normal human being
to get through a day without a thyroid,
let alone a professional athlete,
let alone a professional fighter.
[heartbeats]
♪ ♪
- After my neck injury and the cancer,
I had to go back to California.
I was so emotionally and mentally messed up,
I actually took losing wrestling tougher
than I did finding out that I had cancer.
It was so hard for me because the escape
that I usually have, I couldn't do.
I was so depressed, and I went through a time
where I'm just like, I don't know what I'm gonna do.
I don't know who I am.
But the one thing I could say that I learned from wrestling
is, like, when things get tough, like,
you just gotta keep pushing.
[soft determined music]
♪ ♪
I changed for the better within that time.
I think I had put a lot of my value into wrestling,
and it forced me to figure out who I was as a person
outside of wrestling.
I would just say it was a gift.
Because, yeah, it was hard at the time,
but then I was able to fight cancer and get it treated.
At the same time, I, like, knew that I wasn't done,
or, like, I'm gonna find a way to fight again.
She's not a regular person.
Not that regular people are bad,
but that's not who she is.
- She's a competitor. She's a fighter.
She's just someone who loves to compete.
That's all she knows.
I just tried to be the person
that was there for her all the time.
I just wanted her to know that, like,
no matter what, I'm here for you.
You could work at PetSmart for the rest of your life.
I don't care.
Like, I'm gonna love you the same.
But I knew that's not what she wanted.
- I was trying to figure out what I would want to do next
that I could do that wouldn't be so tough on my neck.
She started doing jiu jitsu.
And I was like, is that, like, really smart?
Isn't that the same as wrestling?
And she was like, no, it's not as hard on your neck.
- The fear of being paralyzed--
I guess what I feel inside, my need to be the best,
outweighs those fears.
- When you feel like he's in decent position, step, step.
Top.
My first exposure to her
was when she walked in the gym,
and she was just doing jiu jitsu.
And I just remembered watching her roll,
and she just did things so naturally, you know?
She just found places to be, how to set her weight,
where to apply pressure.
- You could see him, like, watching me.
He was like, "Have you done this before?"
- And I was like, "No, I just--I wrestled."
And he's like, "I can tell."
- She was tapping a lot of guys out in the gym,
and I had found out probably, like, a few days later,
like, what caliber of a wrestler she was.
- Jiu jitsu class was in an MMA gym.
So I was surrounded by MMA,
like, the striking aspect and everything.
And I was like, well, I might as well do that too.
- MMA stands for mixed martial arts,
which essentially takes elements from jiu jitsu,
boxing, wrestling--
every form of martial art under the sun
gets blended into one sport,
and you see who the most dominant person is.
Tatiana Suarez, her base is wrestling.
Some of the best wrestlers have found
tremendous success in MMA.
And I have long believed that wrestling
is the best base, the best foundation to have
if you're an MMA fighter.
- Right away, she kind of stood out in the room,
and we have mostly male students at our gym,
so a lot of these guys were coming up to me afterwards,
like, asking me who she was.
- Tati started training with me 2012, 2013,
and then actively competing in MMA.
2014 was her first fight.
[cheers and applause]
There you go, Tatiana.
Keep throwing those knees!
Tatiana Suarez!
- As soon as she got healthy, she went back to her calling,
which was to be competing.
And I knew that, you know, once she started doing that,
that, you know, good luck to-- to those other women out there
because she's-- she's one to deal with.
[cheering]
- I had only been fighting in the cage six months,
and I had heard that they were having
the strawweight "Ultimate Fighter."
I wanted to go on that.
- 32 fighters with one common goal:
to survive the most intense competition in MMA.
- "The Ultimate Fighter," they bring in 16 fighters
to live in a house.
And it would basically be a tournament.
- We go out and find the absolute best in the world
in each weight class.
And we get two of the best fighters in the world
to be the head coaches.
- As a coach in "The Ultimate Fighter,"
I had to pick a team.
I had to pick a few people
that were gonna fight under my name.
You know, and I'm very competitive.
And the winner would win
a six-figure contract to the UFC.
- At the time I only had three fights,
so "The Ultimate Fighter" gave me an opportunity
to get some more fights, some more cage time.
[cheering]
There was, like, no doubt in my mind
that I was gonna make it, I was gonna win the show.
When you go to the tryouts, all they have do
is roll for, like, two minutes.
Then I went and did, like, some striking.
I smashed a girl.
After a few weeks, they called me.
They're like, "Hey, you made it on the show."
I had started working at Petco 'cause it was something
that I could do part time while I was training MMA.
And so then I told my boss.
I'm like, "Yeah, I'm leaving." She's like, "What?"
And then I was like, "I made it on to the tough show."
And she was like, "All right, well,
I'll see you in a couple of months."
You know? I told her I was gonna go.
And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm not coming back."
And I just left.
- When I first looked at Tatiana, I was like,
this girl, she has something special, you know.
And when I saw Tatiana fighting,
I was like, holy shit.
This girl is serious.
Pick your first fighter.
Tatiana.
[applause]
Tatiana was very focused.
She knew what she wanted,
and I loved that about her, you know?
Like, you can't teach heart,
and Tatiana is, like, the perfect example of that.
She's been through a lot of struggles in life
that, you know, brought her where she is.
- Tatiana wasn't the type of person that came in
and she doesn't play the victim.
She just comes in and does her work.
Man, she comes in and wins.
- I made it to "The Ultimate Fighter" finale.
- The strawweight final will be Tatiana versus Amanda.
- They have, like, promo, 'cause this is a finale.
And I'm in the back,
and I hear the girl talking about me,
and she's like, "Yeah, Tatiana is not used to being,
"you know, the nail.
So I'm gonna be the hammer, and I'm gonna break her."
I was so calm, and then all of a sudden,
I hear her, and she's saying this.
And I was like, I turn up to like level crazy.
No one's gonna break me.
I wasn't even nervous, 'cause I felt so much anger
that someone thought that they could break me.
- Here is the undefeated Tatiana Suarez.
- And she is a lifelong wrestler
with excellent chain wrestling skills
and diversity in her takedown attempts,
but also has really good diversity
in her submissions as well.
- I took her down, and I'm just, like,
throwing bombs, like, recklessly.
All of a sudden, I'm, like, in an armbar.
- Armbar attempt here from Cooper.
- I'm, like, there's no way I'm tapping.
She's gonna have to break my arm.
I will still beat her with one arm.
And I'm gonna be the Ultimate Fighter.
I didn't even care at that point.
- Nice job defensively by Suarez.
I finally got my arm out.
Nice hammer fist by Suarez.
- D'arce attempt here, could convert to a jack
and Japanese necktie if she can hook
that right leg around the leg.
I hit my D'arce,
and it was, like, so tight that she's tapping,
but the ref couldn't see it.
I literally told him, I was like, "She's tapping."
And then all of the sudden, you see her legs flailing
because she thinks she's gonna go out
and she, like, panics.
He, like, taps me, like stop.
- Tatiana Suarez is the Ultimate Fighter!
[cheers and applause]
- Tatiana Suarez caps an amazing run
on "The Ultimate Fighter."
It was like a validation.
Finally, the world gets to see what I saw and what I know.
- "The Ultimate Fighter," season 23 strawweight winner,
Tatiana Suarez!
- Me winning just gave everybody a lot of hope.
They had seen me go through so much at that point,
my family and Northview and everybody.
They saw me, you know, lose something,
but then I was able to get something even better.
I've been through hell and back.
I've overcome cancer.
And I'm from a place that says, "We don't break.
We break people."
And I will never break.
I've overcome a lot, and I'm never gonna stop
until I'm at the top.
- When, you know, she said, "Where I come from," um...
[sniffling]
"Where I come from, you know, we don't break."
It's just kind of full circle that you know, um,
that you train somebody, and you--and you made them
believe in themselves, and it makes you very proud.
[heartfelt music]
- I saw my mom backstage, and she was crying,
and she was just like, "I'm so proud of you."
I just remember, like, hugging her and realizing
that, like, if she hadn't sacrificed so much for me,
I wouldn't be where I was.
♪ ♪
Hi!
[indistinct chatter]
- Maria? - Huh?
- You wanna do the drills? - Yeah.
Okay.
[indistinct chatter]
I think every time I go out there,
there's, like, a level that you need to know
that you can endure.
So I do that, like, every day during practice
in order to feel confident out in the cage.
I enjoy, like, that feeling where I push myself so hard.
I almost enjoy the feeling of, like,
breaking someone during practice.
- Her wrestling and her grappling is not good,
it's not great; it's elite.
And that's what sets her out from everybody else.
And her striking's legit too.
- Tatiana, she's a nasty wrestler, heavy top pressure.
Her hands and striking just has been looking good.
- I'm 15 pounds heavier than her,
and I've wrestled my entire life,
and I have to go as hard as I can to keep her off my legs
or to not get taken down or not get choked out by her.
Pummel, pummel!
Give a little resistance now, final movement.
About 50%, fight a little bit.
- I'm excited to fight somebody in a cage again.
I love that it's competition,
but then there's also violence behind it.
It's a violent art.
I could do it against the cage, no problem.
- But in the middle, it's closing the distance
and then being safe when you grab.
You know what I mean? Not just, like, grabbing.
Yeah.
And then whenever you're gonna have grappling rounds after.
I grapple all my rounds, so I don't even know.
[laughs]
Yeah.
- Not against her, but I don't think...
It's a huge part of my life to help other females
feel like they can do a male-dominated sport.
For me, that's part of my legacy.
[pensive music]
- I think one of the challenges
that comes with wrestling is,
I just didn't feel like a girl.
It was like, wow, I'm wrestling all these guys.
I'm also being doubted 'cause I'm a girl, and...
I just was like, yeah, I guess I'm one of the few ones
that actually wants to do it.
But it makes me feel special.
- Most people are scared once they find out, like,
oh, she's a girl wrestler.
Like, don't mess with her.
We look a lot more mean than everyone else.
So I think that's, like, what separates us.
- I never wanted to stand out, and I feel like wrestling has
taken me out of that shell.
I feel like I can actually express myself, wear makeup,
do my hair, do whatever I can to look the best
'cause I feel confident in myself.
♪ ♪
- I don't associate fighting with being masculine.
I love being a strong female.
I think being strong is a feminine thing.
I feel like I represent women.
I represent my community.
I represent Latinos.
And that's why, you know, I try to not only be a great fighter
but a great person.
For me, like, along the way,
the journey makes you a better person if,
you know, you use the obstacles to make you better.
[cheers and applause]
[upbeat music]
After winning "The Ultimate Fighter,"
I ended up fighting Viviane Pereira,
beating her by unanimous decision.
Then I had a fight with Alexa Grasso,
and I ended up getting a rear naked choke.
- An impressive showing for Tatiana Suarez.
- After that, I fought Carla Esparza,
and I won by TKO in the third round.
- Tatiana Suarez! - Holy cow.
- After I beat Carla, a lot of people
referred to me as the champ already.
So in my mind, I was just on my way to the title.
And then they asked me to fight Nina Ansaroff
for the number one title contender fight.
- So here she is, folks, the woman who
is all the rage at present.
The number-two ranked strawweight contender,
the undefeated Tatiana Suarez.
- A couple of weeks prior, I ended up
injuring my neck at practice.
I didn't really know, you know, the extent,
but then I ended up fighting with it.
Suarez is in blue,
Nina Ansaroff is in the all gray.
- One of our first exchanges, I just felt, like,
a lot of shooting down my arm and stuff.
And she got her down.
- There is levels to this game.
- I think the mental thing is one of the biggest things
that I had to overcome during the fight,
just because you fear, like, paralysis and stuff like that.
Your mind should not be on paralysis
when you're in a cage fight.
- Declared the winner by unanimous decision,
Tatiana Suarez!
- I remember after her fight in 2019,
we all thought, like, 2020 she's a champion.
Like, it's a done deal.
- You know, it's a long time coming,
and I just wanna see that belt around my waist.
After the fight, it definitely felt a lot worse.
But it dawned on me that I probably needed
some significant time off.
I ended up linking up with Andy Gilpin,
and then we came up with a game plan
of how to recover from my neck injury
'cause I knew that I couldn't--
I wouldn't be able to do that on my own.
- We were probably thinking six, seven months,
and that would have been four years ago.
Her neck injury was really difficult,
and it still is a big challenge
because it impacted everything.
The things we asked Tatiana to do,
I don't know many athletes who could have endured it.
[soft apprehensive music]
Imagine you had to spend 3 1/2 hours
stretching your neck, seven days a week,
multiple times a day.
- I think it runs through your mind sometimes.
I'm like, oh, what if it doesn't get better?
So I took it one day at a time.
You don't wanna spend the rest of your life saying what if.
I wanna be like, I pursued that.
Maybe I failed or I came up short,
but I pursued it.
- It took a year and a half, maybe two years,
but we were finally there.
We went through a test training camp,
and things went perfect.
And I was like, holy crap, you just made it
through basically a training camp.
Let's get a fight.
I had a fight lined up.
Camp was going well.
I wanted to wrestle.
So I ended up going live with this guy,
and I took him down.
And I know that it probably bothered him
that I took him down.
So then he, like, shoots on me
and then pushes me against the wall.
When you're in a cage, you have, like,
more room to work 'cause, like, the cage kind of moves.
So when you put a wall that doesn't move,
it's a different story.
He puts my legs together, and then he literally
just, like, tries to pull me down.
And then I hear, like, the loudest pop imaginable.
It sounded like a baseball bat, like, hit something.
[somber music]
♪ ♪
My knee just, like, was completely,
like, the wrong way and stuff, so my actual joint dislocated.
They're, like, trying to, like, calm me down,
and I'm, like, screaming,
and my knee is like, the opposite way,
so then, like, I, like, flexed my quad,
and then it pops back into place.
I was laying there, and I just--
like, it was really hard, because I came back from--
from something, like, really rough,
you know, like, mentally.
Physically, like, I put in the work
to, like, get to that point.
So, like, it was really-- it was hard.
I don't think I've ever thought about giving up on anything.
But I really felt it at that point.
♪ ♪
After I got injured, I had the MRI done,
and then they called me, and they were like,
"Your knee is really bad.
It's one of the worst injuries I've seen."
He's like, it looks like you were in a motorcycle accident.
She didn't hurt her knee.
She basically tore it off her leg.
It was heartbreaking enough for her to have tweaked a knee
and been out another four months.
This was different.
- That was the lowest I've felt.
Every day was a struggle, how much pain I was in.
And when I say pain, I mean, like,
more emotionally and mentally.
I laid in bed for like a week, and I cried.
But then I was like, all right,
let's come up with something.
- She's very fortunate in the fact that she's in the UFC,
so she gets great access
to the UFC's Performance Institute,
and that is tremendously helpful,
especially during this knee injury process.
Within hours, she was on the phone with a handful
of the best physical therapists in the world.
We had her on the phone with surgeons across the country,
surgeons you can't get into,
that aren't taking people in anymore.
- When an athlete undergoes that much trauma in a joint,
we know it's gonna be a surgical candidate.
We also know that's gonna be a long journey back.
I first met Tatiana working for Team USA Olympic team.
So I've worked with Tatiana since 2011.
Because I've seen her through ups and downs,
I kind of know Tatiana's injuries.
I have also learned what actually fixes them.
Knowing Tatiana, knowing her drive, her willpower,
there's never gonna be an injury
that puts this girl down.
She has bigger goals, bigger lifetime dreams
of rising to the top and being on top.
- I ended up getting surgery here in Las Vegas.
Then maybe two days after, I started physical therapy.
[soft determined music]
The comeback doesn't start after you're already healthy.
The comeback starts when you're still injured
and you have to get surgery and prior to surgery.
Like, that's how I saw it.
My comeback started the minute I decided
that I was gonna still fight again.
♪ ♪
- Tatiana Suarez is one of the strongest people I've seen.
I had to go through a leg injury as well,
and if she could deal with all that, I can definitely do it.
And it's very inspiring seeing Tatiana persevere
through some of the same things
I had to go through.
It helped me a lot.
- I feel like she really is an inspiration
how she goes through the challenges
and adversity that she faces.
Whenever I wrestle, I really try to be like her.
I really try to remember that
she has that mentality where it's like,
you're not taking me down.
- When I was struggling with my mental health,
I was practicing a lot with Tatiana.
She just set an example.
Well, she's doing it. I could do it too.
It just kind of gave me that motivation.
I don't know if I would consider myself
falling into her footsteps or carrying her legacy.
I think that's definitely a really hard thing to do.
But I think it's a feeling that
kind of all of us in the room are chasing.
- If you look at the sport and look at these athletes,
they're all people that other people aspire to be.
These women show girls what is possible.
When you look at what's gonna happen
over the next 15 to 20 years with young girls,
watching these women do what they do,
you're gonna have a completely different breed of women.
It's all about little girls seeing what's possible.
- We haven't seen her since June of 2019.
It's a real travesty to be in your prime
and not fight for three-plus years,
and to be as good as she is, and to probably
be champion right now, and who knows what
that would have done for her life and her family
and her bank account and all that stuff.
It's a tough pill to swallow.
- When you take three years off in a combat sport
and try to come back, it's hard.
It's very hard.
And now she's gotta overcome ring rust, three years off.
You break your neck.
You get thyroid cancer.
Then you blow your entire knee out.
At what point do you just say, you know what?
Maybe this isn't for me,
and I need to go in another direction.
But she's worked her whole life to get here.
Life has thrown a lot of shit at her.
And she's overcome it all.
- You almost caught him in a guillotine too.
Yeah, I know.
- He didn't wanna give it up. - No.
- He was looking over here when you were choking him.
I think he's a little embarrassed.
- Today, I'm going to text Mick Maynard,
the matchmaker of the UFC, to ask for a fight.
At this point, I feel mentally ready for it.
I've been training for a while now.
I feel strong.
And so now it's just a matter of getting a fight and a date.
At this point, I just want to fight anybody.
I don't really care who it is.
Oh, he texted back, guys.
He said, "You got it. Good news."
And then he said, "115, question mark?"
We're not doing 115 this fight, guys.
We're doing 125.
Your girl put on some muscle.
I mean, I train either way,
but I'm excited for him to be working on a match-up for me
so that I can finally get out there
and perform and compete,
'cause competing's what I love most.
It's been a long time since I've had a fight,
and I'm just excited to go out there
and finally show what I can do.
So hopefully, this is the start of it.
So I'm excited for that.
What's up, everyone?
James Lynch here, doing a quick reaction video
to the news that Tatiana Suarez
finally has her next fight booked after a long layoff.
She's gonna be taking on Montana De La Rosa.
- Montana's tough. She comes forward.
She throws big, heavy shots.
She's got some wrestling background,
so I'm sure she's gonna be working on defending
takedowns and stuff like that.
Stop! Stop!
- Under the chin, there's the tap.
She's a top tier fighter.
And then the one thing that Montana has an advantage
over Tatiana is the fact that we're fighting
at a heavier weight class.
- It's just great to see Tatiana Suarez back in action.
It's been a while.
If she's healthy, she's gonna make a lot of noise
in that division in 2023.
I'm really excited for that, so...
- I'm a little nervous, actually.
I just need to get cleared today so I can fight.
Am I doing the X-ray?
Yeah.
Now, I don't know if you've gotten X-rays--
can you put your hair up in, like, a high bun?
[apprehensive music]
Raise your chin up for me, a little higher.
♪ ♪
- You're scheduled to fight on what date?
The 25th.
- You've been in camp, like, the last six weeks at least?
- Yeah. - Okay. All right.
So right now as your competition is approaching,
you're not having any neck pain?
No.
- You're not having any symptoms that extend
- into your arms or hands? - Mm-mm.
- And you have been grappling? - Right.
- You have been boxing. - Right.
- And you're wrestling. - Yeah.
- Okay, and--and all this is working out fine so far?
- Yeah. - Okay.
So what I'm gonna do is look at,
just to give you a heads-up, look at your neck,
feel it, to have you move your head around.
I'm gonna check your reflexes, sensation.
If I touch the middle of your neck in here...
- Mm-mm.
Without turning your body, just your chin all the way
- to the right, any issue? - No.
All the way to the left?
And then the next thing is to tilt.
- Any issue? - Mm-mm.
And tilting, any issue?
- No. - Okay.
So when we took X-rays of your neck
with you sort of flexing or going forward,
the importance of that is that your spine is stable.
Yeah.
The bones stayed in line.
- They just move together. - Yeah.
- What you do have is, you have bone spurs.
But what does this mean, basically?
Basically, it means that you have a lot of wear
- and tear in your neck. - Yeah.
- And so far you've been stressing it over the last six
to eight weeks of training and you have no symptoms.
So from your clinical history, meaning you telling me
and I examining you, you know,
you would be cleared to compete.
That's the conclusion that we have at this time.
- I'm gonna do a Skype interview at 2:00.
Oh, and I get to try on my fight kit.
I mean, I really like fight week.
I'm excited to, like, sign the posters and stuff.
[soft percussive music]
♪ ♪
- Can I sign anywhere? - Except for the face.
Okay, perfect.
Really after, you know, just doing it,
you're gonna help me get to all the places--
I am, yep.
- I need to do my meeting, like, right now.
- We're so happy that you're back in the mix here.
- I've been itching to get back.
I just love to compete.
Dude, I have a big hand.
I love the feeling of, like, knowing that I'm gonna get
in the cage with somebody.
Like, simple combos.
Just like you're doing is perfect.
All right.
I'm here.
- What a wonderful sight. Welcome back.
- I know that I'm the best in the world
and I just wanna go and prove it,
but I couldn't 'cause I was sidelined by injuries.
What are we doing?
- Regular stuff. - Okay.
- So fight kit. - Thank you.
Now what is it?
- Now we're gonna hop on the big stage.
- I'm mentally prepared for anything.
Wrestling taught me that.
You know, I've been wrestling since I was three years old.
Do you care if we go into the other room
so that I could do the interview too?
- Happy to be joined by Tatiana Suarez.
Over the years you've had a variety of injuries.
Like, what goes through your head when something like that
happens to you again?
- It was really hard, but I was like,
this isn't gonna deter me from doing what I love.
- Thank you so much for doing this, Tatiana.
- Thank you. I appreciate it.
Thank you for having me on, and sorry for being late.
[pensive music]
♪ ♪
Feels good. I'm excited.
Mentally, I feel good,
and that's the biggest, I think, obstacle sometimes
is, like, being mentally prepared
to fight somebody in a steel cage.
You know what I mean? So.
I'm jumping for guillotines and stuff,
so once I start doing that, I don't know.
I'm, like, I definitely am ready
when I start doing stuff like that.
♪ ♪
[metallic banging]
- How do you--how do you wanna do it, Tatiana?
How--do you wanna save a little bit?
I always tell people you have two fights on fight week.
You have your weight cut,
and then you have the actual fight.
And for some athletes, the weight cut
is more nerve-racking than the actual fight.
I'm gonna get to 127.
- This is, like, part of the fight
you don't look forward to.
No one looks forward to sweating,
wearing the plastics.
You know, just really kind of cooking your body
and dehydrating your body like this.
[indistinct chatter]
You're--you're dripping.
And that's all. We gotta keep the drips.
- Whatever you gotta do to keep it going,
but you don't have to work--
- Shadowbox for 30 seconds, and just walk.
Just walk around the room.
You don't have to do anything crazy.
- Yeah, just keep it going, walking...
[pensive music]
♪ ♪
- Can we get you up for-- for like 5, 10 minutes,
and then let's check your weight.
I wanna roll.
Do you want a roll?
- I wanna go-- - Yeah, we'll check it later.
- Now I wanna just chill, so maybe wrap me or something.
- So you're trying to do a little break?
Yeah.
♪ ♪
45 minutes?
- Almost 45 minutes, 43, 44 minutes.
Okay.
- 5 minutes. - 24 minutes.
We can layer you down a little bit too.
Six, seven?
Seven? [groans]
[indistinct chatter]
♪ ♪
- Ooh, man. Look at that.
- You're laying in a puddle of water.
Like, five.
Activity completed.
Nice.
I forgot how terrible it is.
♪ ♪
- Next to the scale, Tatiana Suarez.
125.
- Official weight 125 pounds for Tatiana Suarez.
- There's a lot of people that, after they weigh in,
they tend to eat a lot.
I don't eat a lot.
I always wanna stay, like, somewhat hungry,
because I feel like it makes me
more primal when I go into a fight.
- Up next, we're in the women's flyweight division,
Montana De La Rosa takes on Tatiana Suarez.
[cheers]
- Tatiana, let me just tell you,
it is an honor to say welcome back.
How did you stay dedicated and motivated to your future
and not crumble under all these things that
have been on your shoulders?
- For me, my mom raised me to be really strong.
And when things don't, you know, go your way,
you gotta just pick yourself up and figure it out.
- Clear. - Oh, my God.
Give me a hug. We have missed you.
[indistinct chatter]
- Thank you, guys. - See you guys later.
- Bye. See you. - Bye-bye now.
[soft music]
♪ ♪
- Hey! - Hi, Mom.
Hi, baby.
How was the trip?
- It was raining and snowing a little bit.
- That pass, the 15, gets really foggy sometimes.
And it's very scary.
'Cause one time I did the drive,
you could not see in front of you at all.
Weight cut was easy?
You look good.
- I didn't look drained at the weigh-in, did I?
- Did you see my weigh-in? - I didn't see the weigh-in.
125.
- Yay. - 125 pounds.
I'm just kidding.
My relationship with my mom now is good.
It's easier for me to understand
a lot of the things and the reasons
why she did the things she did.
When you're a kid, you don't know how hard life is.
I love her because I know that
she only wanted the best for me.
You know, and she sacrificed a lot,
and she was in pain while doing it.
And she probably felt alone while doing it.
So I'm grateful for it.
- Having the kids at my young age
and wanting them to be successful
because I wanted to prove a point that my kids
could be successful too.
But I didn't have the skills I needed to be a parent.
When you're young, you take direction
from the people that you know.
- I think her trying to push me was so that
I wouldn't make the same mistakes
and so that I could have a better life
than what she thought she had.
I remember she told me, like, at one point,
she was digging in her car and trying to get some change
just so that she could get gas to take me to practice.
You know, this is how much dedication
she was putting into providing a better life for me.
- I always feel nervous when she's gonna fight.
I always feel nervous-- not that I feel
like she's not gonna win.
It's just, like, a mom thing, I guess.
Even just little hurts,
like when she cut her eye,
or just little things, you know, it bothers me.
She's my daughter.
But so I get nervous that I can't protect her.
I always stand up for myself.
Right?
- I think all my kids are pretty good at that.
Yeah. Yeah.
I forgave my mom for-- for all of it
just because I know how much my mom loves me.
You know, I can see it. I can feel it.
And I know that she, like,
wishes she could do it all over again, but...
I think she did a great job with, uh...
With what she had.
[indistinct chatter]
- Stepping into a cage with another athlete
who's been training for six to eight weeks
studying you to fight you,
probably one of the most intense sports
you can compete in, right?
It's different than a lot of other sports.
All eyes are on you. It's not a team sport.
You know, there's a chance you can get knocked out.
There's a lot kind of racing through your mind.
Okay. All right.
Do you wanna pray with us?
Yes, 100%.
- I'm with you. - All right.
Father God, just, I wanna thank you
for everything you've done in our lives, for--
for just being with Tatiana today.
Help her to use her God-given talents
and to remember where she came from, God,
and how far she's come.
Give her strength in her fighting
and in her mind and in her heart, God.
We love you, God, and it's in your son's name I pray.
Amen. both: Amen.
Thank you.
Thank you, Lisa.
[apprehensive music]
It comes with a lot of extra emotions,
a lot of vulnerabilities, a lot of insecurities.
So for her to control that,
Tatiana has one of the best minds in all of MMA,
seeing as her injuries-- her ACL, her neck injuries,
injuries that she's been able to overcome
and still have a strong mindset.
Even though she's still that strong,
these feelings-- anyone could succumb to them,
so it's important for her to still have
her strong mindset right now.
And she does, so I know in a couple hours,
she's gonna do a great, great job.
♪ ♪
- The things that we do take discipline,
and you have to constantly say that to yourself.
Like, how bad do I want this?
How hard do I have to work for this?
- I've had this recurring dream where I always, like,
picture myself at the top of that podium.
I just--I really want that moment to come,
so I'm gonna do, like, everything in my power
that I can just to have that.
I would rather take a loss where I took chances any day,
where I would take a win where I played it safe.
And I just feel like it's another step
to where I wanna be.
- I just kind of find a part of myself
before I step onto the mat.
I just feel indestructible.
Making my opponent quit is the number one thing
that's on my mind.
♪ ♪
- Boom, that's your knockout right there.
Yep.
- Cracked my neck. You feel it?
Let's go, baby.
We all got your back. Got an army.
♪ ♪
- And after almost four years on the sidelines,
Tatiana Suarez returns tonight.
[cheers and applause]
- fans everywhere want to see
what she delivers in the Octagon.
[announcer speaking indistinctly]
Tatiana Suarez!
- The first fight since June of 2019.
The return comes now.
- It's worth remembering, though,
Suarez is a lifelong competitor.
Four years away, but in a life,
that's kind of just a blip.
And she's a monster.
When it comes to wrestling, no one's been able
to stay on their feet.
- Just making her carry her weight.
- Her opponent's a UFC veteran,
also the husband of Montana De La Rosa.
[announcer speaking indistinctly]
- De La Rosa doing a good job peppering
with little uppercuts.
And so far this is the toughest test
we've seen for Suarez taking somebody down.
- That shows the strength of De La Rosa, and that's--
the weight class right there makes a difference.
- De La Rosa really making her work for it.
- Good. Square your hips up.
Clear your head.
Suarez pops her head out,
will go to work from full guard.
- And that's classic Tatiana Suarez.
That is how she wins the fights.
But let's see what Montana's got off her back.
Straighten up!
Use that gauge. Fight the hands.
- Montana's doing a good job fighting back to her feet.
A little knee there.
- Stay behind her. Stay behind her.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- First five minutes for Tatiana Suarez
in 3 1/2 years in the books. [air horn blares]
Second round coming up.
Tatiana Suarez.
[applause]
♪ ♪
- Take that mouthpiece out, Tati?
You gotta strike her a little more.
Bounce around, get a little more comfortable out there.
- Dance, move your head. Dance, move your head, okay?
- Dominic, when you dust it off
after a long layoff due to injury,
how is Tatiana Suarez feeling right now after five minutes?
- Oh, I don't know how she's feeling.
I know she's prepared for this fight, though.
You could see it.
We'll see after this round, though, we'll know.
Oh!
- Bust her up, Tatiana. Elbow her right there.
Cut her up. Let's go.
Take down. Take down.
Suarez is so strong.
She's doing a good job so far.
Oh, and gets spun down.
- The classic head and arm throw.
De La Rosa can explode here,
now she's getting dragged down.
♪ ♪
- Good front headlock. - Wow. Absolutely.
- She goes for the guillotine. She--
- Wow, that looks deep. - Digs back.
Keep the crunch, Tatiana!
There's a slight grimace.
Suarez is gonna be a little more on her side, though.
[heartbeats]
- De La Rosa, she's on the side.
- She could get out, though. She's doing the right thing.
She's gonna tap!
Oh, that'll do it!
Tatiana Suarez back in a big way,
second round submission--
- With a guillotine, baby! Let's go.
Come on, baby.
[cheers and applause]
She took a gamble,
big chance going for that guillotine,
giving up top position.
- Wrestling 101, snap to the front headlock,
and then here's the jiu jitsu 101.
Throw the full guard in once you get it underneath the chin
and just commit.
[triumphant music]
♪ ♪
- Declaring the winner by submission
due to a guillotine choke,
Tatiana Suarez!
[cheers and applause]
- Tatiana, tell me, how good does this feel?
Four years away from the Octagon.
- Oh, my God. I'm so happy.
I've been dreaming about this for a long time.
I wasn't able to fight.
And it's really hard when you can't do
what you love to do the most.
And I know what it's like to lose one dream,
and I didn't wanna lose another.
So, um, for me, I just felt like,
I'm just really happy that I can show anybody
if they're going through tough times,
to keep your head up,
'cause it's gonna-- it's gonna work out.
And that optimism that I have in my--
my heart and my--
my--my mom taught me that.
'Cause, you know, she knew that I was gonna have...
Go, Mama.
- You know, a really tough life.
Go, Mom.
- You know, I was in a male-dominated sport,
and I was told my whole life that I shouldn't be there.
So here I am.
And I belong here.
- Congratulations on a great comeback.
Ladies and gentlemen, Tatiana Suarez!
[applause]
[announcer speaking indistinctly]
- And it's hard to argue with that
'cause there's not a lot of athletes
that have come back from what Tatiana Suarez
has come back from.
And when you do something like this after a layoff,
after everybody tells you it's impossible
and it can't be done and you're not as good
as the other people who stayed in, and you go do it,
it's hard to stop you after that.
You had it.
I was, like, don't you let that fucking go.
I knew you had her.
'Cause you just practiced it right before you walked out.
You were like, let me do one more guillotine on you.
And you jumped and did it.
My brother's on the phone.
What's up?
- It feels good, and I'm excited, man.
I'm so excited. I wish you were here.
Thank you, bro.
[cheers and applause]
I got 50,000 extra dollars.
- Yeah, they said you got a bonus.
I was wondering what it was from.
- Yeah, like, they give you, like, a performance bonus
if you do really well.
- If you get a submission, you get a bonus.
- Yeah, or a knockout. - Yeah.
- Yeah, or a fight of the night,
which is when they're beating the shit out of each other.
You don't want that one. [laughter]
Let's go.
- Dude, you're fucking bad-ass, bro.
Thank you.
[soft music]
I just feel like I needed this one
for me, for my family,
like, everybody who believes in me
and, like, hasn't given up on me.
I'm back, though.
I'm so happy.
♪ ♪
- When I look at her, I still see the baby
that was when I had her and I looked at her eyes.
And I saw something special.
I had all these dreams for her,
none of which I thought would be wrestling or fighting,
but that she have a great life,
that whatever she wanted in life would happen for her.
- She's been in some fucked up places, man.
And she's not broken.
It's just the beginning, and she's not gonna break.
- I think that's what challenges are supposed to do.
They're supposed to make you better.
I'm grateful for every single thing
that I've faced that was hard.
It helped me become a better athlete, a better person.
For me, that's part of my legacy.
It's not about the victories for me.
It's about me inspiring whoever I can
to pursue their dreams and their passions.
Not only that, but when things are tough,
to persevere through those tough times.
[soft determined music]
♪ ♪
[bright tone]