Amanda Lemos is still not giving up on Tatiana Suarez. After making her win against Mackenzie Dern at UFC 298 this Saturday, Lemos wants to get her fight against the No. 2 women’s strawweight to be rebooked.
Lemos was originally set to fight Suarez in the event, but the latter withdrew due to a swelling knee. In her recent interview, the 33-year-old revealed that this has been preventing her from grappling.
“Basically what happened was my knee just completely swelled, like got so swollen where I couldn’t bend it or do anything,” Suarez shared weeks ago. “All I could do was literally hit mits. If I go hard, it starts to hurt, so I have to tone it down. I couldn’t bend my knee completely, so I couldn’t do any grappling or any wrestling, or any sparring…”
Thankfully, UFC found a replacement in Dern, who is coming from a loss to Jessica Andrade at UFC 295. Lemos knows that the urgent focus now is Dern, but the female fighter hopes to be booked against Suarez again.
“After winning on Saturday, the first thing we need to do is try to see if Tatiana is available for the fight and reschedule that fight as soon as possible,” Lemos said through an interpreter at UFC 298 media day. “If she’s not able to go, I would have the UFC tell me what they need from me. The focus right now is to beat her (Dern) on Saturday and go from there.”
