Tatiana Suarez-Montana De La Rosa Flyweight Scrap Booked for UFC Fight Night 220

The long-awaited return for Ultimate Fighting Championship contender Tatiana Suarez is right around the corner.

On Monday, Sherdog learned from sources that Suarez (8-0) would be coming back from a nearly four-year layoff to take on Montana De La Rosa (12-7-1) in February. Suarez, a strawweight contender before injury kept her on the shelf from mid-2019 through 2022, will be moving to 125 pounds for this matchup. De La Rosa confirmed Friday on her OnlyFans page that this fight was official for the Feb. 25 card of UFC Fight Night 220. She subsequently announced this on her Instagram Stories not long after the news broke.

Suarez won Season 23 of “The Ultimate Fighter” by submitting J.J. Aldrich, Kate Jackson and Amanda Bobby Brundage to run through the reality show. After getting her "six-figure contract," she strung together four wins over Viviane Pereira, Alexa Grasso, former and future champ Carla Esparza and Nina Nunes. This will be Suarez' first appearance at flyweight since her three-fight stint in Gladiator Challenge from 2014 to 2015. A serious neck injury forced her to recover for quite some time, and she had to withdraw from a slated 2021 outing against Roxanne Modafferi due to injury as well. In addition to healing, Suarez appeared on the 16th season of “The Bachelorette,” where she coached the bachelors in wrestling ahead of a competition for the men vying for the bachelorette’s affection.

De La Rosa has seen her ups and downs since coming out of the 26th season of TUF as an unsuccessful quarterfinalist. With a record of 5-3-1 in the Octagon thus far, four of those five victories have come by stoppage, including a knockout of Ariane Lipski and a submission of Rachael Ostovich as she traversed the flyweight division. De La Rosa has not been finished in the UFC, with decision setbacks to Andrea Lee, Viviane Araujo, and most recently, Maycee Barber in April 2022. Since Suarez has been away, De La Rosa stepped into the Octagon six times.

The aforementioned Suarez will not be the only fighter coming back from a long absence at this fight card. Courtesy of a story from MMA Junkie on Friday, Alex Reyes (13-3) will be rejoining the ranks of the UFC for the first time since 2017. The one-time welterweight – who took the fight on short notice up a weight class – debuted against Mike Perry at UFC Fight Night 116, and he succumbed to a knockout in 79 seconds that night. An illness that threatened his ability to walk kept him sidelined as he recovered, and he has healed up and will be squaring off against Trevor Peek (7-0) in the lightweight division. Additionally, Jose Johnson (15-7) will take on Garrett Armfield (8-3) at bantamweight, with news of that pairing first coming from Eurosport NL also on Friday.

UFC Fight Night 220 goes down at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Feb. 25, with 205-pounders Nikita Krylov and Ryan Spann battling it out for a top-10 spot in the main event. The likely co-headliner will see Andre Muniz face Brendan Allen, but the lineup is not yet official and Suarez-De La Rosa could earn high billing. Other fights on the card include a featherweight clash between Andre Fili and Lucas Almeida, and a 135-pound tussle as Hailey Cowan debuts against Ailin Perez.