Issue 221

September 2025

E. Spencer Kyte digs into how three rising contenders turned the sting of their first loss into the spark that kept them climbing.

There are innumerable ways to lose a fight, so it’s rare to see a career without a setback. Unless your last name is Nurmagomedov. Everyone else has found the wrong end of the results at one time or another. How they deal with it is as varied as the methods by which one can get bounced from the ranks of the unbeaten. ‘Suga’ Sean O’Malley refused to acknowledge his loss to Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera for some time, while Jon Jones has been trying to get his disqualification loss to Matt Hamill expunged from his record for 16 years. Others, like Georges St-Pierre, used it as motivation to get better, returning two years later to avenge his loss. Defeats don’t have to define you. However, the first one often leaves a lasting impression. We caught up with a trio of standouts to ask them to reflect on their first loss and how they responded to it.

TATIANA SUAREZ: IT’S NOT THE RESULT THAT MATTERS

If you know anything about Tatiana Suarez’s story, you will understand that the strawweight standout wasn’t going to let one solitary loss inside the Octagon derail her.

“My mentality about life is like that because I’ve had some stuff,” she said of her “get back after it” mindset when we spoke before her fight last month. Some stuff is an understatement. The 34-year-old was on an Olympic track when a neck injury sidelined her, and the subsequent scans revealed a cancerous growth on her thyroid. After beating cancer, she transitioned to MMA, where she established herself as a formidable threat. Consecutive wins over Alexa Grasso and Carla Esparza put her on the cusp of a title fight. Still, a neck injury sustained nine months later in a less-than-dynamic win over Nina Nunes forced her to focus on recovery. It would be 44 months before she competed again, but after winning two fights, she earned her title shot against Zhang Weili. Sadly, it was not to be. 

“I can’t just be like, ‘Aw man, life sucks; F this!’” offered the perennial contender. “It’s always been me picking myself up. Being a lifelong athlete has taught me that you win and lose, and for me, it’s not about the wins and losses. It’s who I am outside of those things. Picking myself up after the loss is something that I should be proud of, and anybody who has ever lost should be proud of because that’s the most difficult thing. It’s easy when you win all the time. It’s been good for me, mentally, to face that and know that I can face a loss with grace.”

FATIMA KLINE: SHORT-NOTICE SETBACK

“I feel like there are still no words to put together to explain how chaotic that week was for me,” began the 25-year-old strawweight standout, whose first loss came in her short-notice UFC debut last summer against Jasmine Jasudavicius. “I still look back and think how exciting that time was for me: it being my birthday, being my debut for the UFC, being able to skip Contenders. I really feel like taking that fight against Jasmine, I do feel like I had to take it. It was necessary. And I learned so much from it. I could have declined it, could have just went through Contenders, got in, and maybe I would have never lost? I would still have a 0 next to my name, but I feel like this sport isn’t really about being undefeated and never losing, always having that 0. Some of the best in the world have a number, you know what I mean? I feel like I dared to be great. I did it on 10 days' notice, against somebody that was ranked at the time, up a weight class, in Colorado, with so many things against me, I still took it, never backed down. I feel like that fight, how it played out, my performance, I think it just speaks for itself.”

HOW IT HAPPENED

Arriving as an undefeated prospect, Kline was a highly regarded emerging talent but came out on the wrong side of the scorecards. Her UFC debut and first professional loss were forever intertwined, but she was never tethered to the idea of being an undefeated fighter.

“In that moment, that was the one time I was like, ‘There’s no way I can lose. It’s my UFC debut!’ I almost felt unstoppable in that moment. But previous to that, I was always like, ‘I’ll probably lose at some point, and that’s okay because it’s just a loss and you have to learn how to deal with them. The biggest thing for me, looking back now after a little over a year, is — I just can’t wait to look back when I’m 35 or retired and think, ‘Man, I never shied away from a fight.’ I never want people to look at my record and be like, ‘She cherry-picked.’ I never want my competitors to ever be on a losing streak. I’ve always pushed to fight the best, and I did it that day. It didn’t work out in my favor, but it’s almost like yes, it hurts that I don’t have a zero anymore, but I didn’t stray away from that fight. I accepted it, I went out there and fought with everything I had until the last bell, and the pride I get from that is even better than having a zero.”

Not that she’s necessarily content with having lost.

“I’m still trying to figure out how to get over it, and she is fifth in the world now,” added Kline, who is set to face Angela Hill at UFC 322 in November. “When I see she’s fighting Manon, I’m still like, ‘I wanna get that back.’ There is still that little bit of grudge in me, and I don’t think it will ever leave because that’s just the competitor in me. So hopefully by the end of my career, and if not, I have to be content as well, but I’m still trying to figure that out. Everybody deals with it differently, and I had to learn that quickly. I was like, ‘How do other people deal with this?’ because I feel like I was taking it so hard, but it’s just me, and everybody takes it differently. It’s like life. There are ups and downs, and you have to take it with a grain of salt and just learn from it.”

ERIN BLANCHFIELD: LESSONS AND A CHANCE FOR VENGEANCE

Most observers don’t believe Erin Blanchfield should have lost in her meeting with Tracy Cortez at Invicta FC 34 on February 15, 2019. 

“Whenever you’re waiting for a split decision, it’s always super-nerve-racking because it’s always super-close, and then losing that first fight, it was my first time losing in a long time, so it was pretty rough,” admitted the 26-year-old flyweight contender. “I remember it feeling almost surreal. I was like, ‘Damn, I can’t believe I let myself lose that. In retrospect, I think I really needed that. I think it really helped me to grow, and I went on a huge winning streak again after that. It definitely sucked in the moment, and it’s pretty cliche when people say, ‘I needed that,’ but it’s so true. You really don’t take time to step back and really look at things until you have lost and had to feel all those emotions, work through that, and I feel like it really helped me. 

When asked how she processed the loss, she is frank about her emotions. 

“Initially, I’m super-bummed. I don’t wanna talk to anybody. I’m silent on the ride back, super-pissed about it. After a week or so, I’ll go back to the gym and watch it over with my coaches, but even when I win fights, I go back and watch it just to see what I could have done better. Obviously, with the losses, there are probably more things that you could have done and need to improve.”

A RENEWAL

That reflection following her first loss helped produce a nine-fight winning streak for Blanchfield, which included her signing with the UFC and rocketing into title contention. She suffered a second setback last year, losing to Fiorot in Atlantic City before rebounding with a win over Rose Namajunas. And now, Blanchfield will have the opportunity to avenge her first loss when she faces off with Cortez next month at UFC 322 in New York City.

“It wasn’t something I was necessarily chasing,” she said of the matchup. “I was chasing getting to the top of the division, being in contention, getting in that title contender (race). Once I got into the UFC, I knew she was there. I knew she came back down to ’25, so I knew the opportunity could always happen, and it’s kind of happened the way I always expected it to. I didn’t have a fight matched up. My last fight didn’t happen. The top of the division is a little stalled with Valentina (Shevchenko) fighting (Zhang) Weili, so now it just makes sense. She’s No. 8 in the division, I’m No. 4, and everybody else is pretty much booked up, so now it’s time to run it back.”

FINDING THE ‘W’ IN ‘L’

Losses don’t write the same script for each fighter. Some become fueled by a subconscious grudge. Others are left with a scar that proves they can survive far more than they believed was ever possible. What Kline, Suarez, and Blanchfield show in different shades is that the 0 on their records is just a placeholder until the unforeseen areas of life so often get involved. The records aren’t the things that truly matter. It’s what follows that counts. There’s usually the unearthing of a stubborn pride that urges them to keep chasing challenges. First defeats probably offer the worst bite, but for those fighters who stick around long enough, they’re rarely the last, and more often than not, these are just the beginning of something much bigger and better.