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This weekend sees the UFC return to Mexico for a major Fight Night event, and while it isn’t a pay-per-view, it’ll still be cool to see the promotion over the border again.
Over the years, the UFC has visited Mexico on numerous occasions, and the country has produced some great fighters in the process.
But who are the greatest Mexican fighters in UFC history? It’s a question that is definitely up for debate.
With that in mind, excluding American fighters who flew the Mexican flag, here are the five best UFC fighters to come from Mexico.
#5. Diego Lopes – UFC featherweight contender
While the top four on this list stand head and shoulders above the rest, the No.5 slot is a little harder to choose.
Mexico has produced three titleholders and another title challenger in the UFC, but most of the other fighters who’ve been in the octagon would fall under the label of journeymen.
However, adopted Mexican Diego Lopes appears to be on a slightly different path. While he’s only three fights into his octagon career, title contention could definitely be in his future.
Born in Brazil, Lopes moved to Mexico to further his burgeoning fighting career as a teenager. Since then, he’s put together a strong record of 23-6 and has claimed victories over a number of UFC veterans.
Since arriving in the promotion in 2023, meanwhile, Lopes has seen plenty of success. His octagon debut saw him push the unbeaten Movsar Evloev harder than any other of his opponents, coming close to submitting him. Following this close loss, he’s defeated Gavin Tucker and Pat Sabatini, winning performance bonuses for both wins.
Lopes is now on the cusp of the top 15 in one of the promotion’s deepest divisions – featherweight. Seeing him contend for the title in the future wouldn’t be a surprise. For this potential, he makes this list.
#4. Irene Aldana – former UFC bantamweight title challenger
While she failed to claim the bantamweight title when she fell to legendary champion Amanda Nunes in 2023, it’s fair to say that Irene Aldana has been one of the UFC’s most successful Mexican fighters to date.
‘Robles’ debuted in the octagon back in 2016. While she lost her first bout there to Leslie Smith, the fight was a thriller that won both women a $50k performance bonus.
After bouncing back from a second defeat, Aldana began to hit her stride. Using a pinpoint, sniping striking game and an underrated submission arsenal on the ground, she defeated the likes of Ketlen Vieira, Yana Santos and Macy Chiasson to climb into title contention.
While she came up short against Nunes in her eventual title challenge, she was not finished and has since bounced back with an impressive win over Karol Rosa.
With ‘The Lioness’ now retired and Raquel Pennington – who narrowly beat Aldana in a three-round bout in 2019 – holding the bantamweight title, there’s every chance the Mexican can gain another shot at the gold in the future.
And given the way she’s improved over the years, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see her become a champion in her own right if she does so.
#3. Yair Rodriguez – former interim UFC featherweight champion
The featherweight winner of 2014’s inaugural series of TUF: Latin America, Yair Rodriguez is perhaps the most popular Mexican fighter in UFC history even if he isn’t technically the most successful.
‘El Pantera’ was identified very early into his octagon run by Joe Rogan as a potential title contender of the future, but back then, it seemed unlikely. Rodriguez was flashy, sure, but he seemed too raw and reckless to ever properly climb up the ladder.
However, after suffering a nasty loss to Frankie Edgar in 2017, the Mexican took an extended absence from action, and since returning in 2018, he’s largely gone from strength to strength.
His return bout saw him dispatch the Korean Zombie in legendary fashion – finishing him with a wild back elbow with literally one second remaining in the fifth round.
Since then, he’s also defeated Jeremy Stephens, Brian Ortega and Josh Emmett, winning the interim featherweight title on the way. His only losses came against former titleholders Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski.
With an understated charisma and a truly wild fighting style still based around unorthodox, low-percentage strikes – just as it was in his 2014 debut – Rodriguez remains one of the most exciting fighters to watch in the promotion.
While he hasn’t quite reached the top of the pyramid, he’s definitely one of the best UFC fighters produced by Mexico.
#2. Alexa Grasso – UFC flyweight champion
There have been plenty of great upsets in the UFC over the years, but 2023 saw one of the biggest when Alexa Grasso unseated longtime flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko.
The win not only made Grasso only the second Mexican champion in the promotion’s history, but it also elevated her to the top of the women’s pound-for-pound rankings, where she remains at the time of writing.
Grasso initially debuted in the octagon back in 2016 as a strawweight, going 3-3 at the weight and most notably defeating former title challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz.
It was when she moved up to 125 pounds in 2020 that she really began to reach her potential, though.
Always a very technically gifted boxer and an underrated grappler, the move up in weight allowed Grasso to hold a speed advantage over most of her opponents without struggling with their strength.
She quickly reeled off four wins in a row to set up her fateful bout with Shevchenko. While nobody thought she could beat ‘The Bullet’, she proved them all wrong.
After stunning the longtime champ with her striking skills in the first round, the Mexican hung tough as the fight went on, and when Shevchenko made a rare error in attempting a spin kick in the fourth round, Grasso capitalized.
She used the move to take the back of ‘The Bullet’ and then applied a neck crank that forced her to tap out for the first time in her career, stealing away her title in the process and making history.
Grasso has since taken a draw with Shevchenko in a rematch, defending her title in the process, and it appears that there’s nothing to stop her from holding the crown for a lengthy period of time. If she can do that, she could well end up on top of a list like this in the future.
#1. Brandon Moreno – former UFC flyweight champion
While few would’ve expected it when he made his octagon debut in 2016, it’s probably fair to say that former two-time flyweight champ Brandon Moreno is the best Mexican fighter in UFC history.
Moreno entered the promotion off the back of a largely unsuccessful run on TUF 24. While a couple of early wins showed flashes of potential, he then suffered back-to-back losses.
Those losses saw him strangely released from his contract, but after one fight on the regional scene, he was back with a vengeance.
After winning three fights in a row, late 2020 saw Moreno positioned as a late-notice challenger to then-champion Deiveson Figueiredo.
‘The Assassin Baby’ looked like another victim for Figueiredo to dispatch, but after a five-round war, the Mexican instead secured a wild draw after displaying near-inhuman toughness.
That led to an immediate rematch, and this time, Moreno stunned everyone by submitting ‘The God of War’ in the third round to become the UFC’s first Mexican-born champion.
Moreno lost his title back to Figueiredo in a trilogy bout, but again, the fight was a dramatic and close one. After stopping Kai Kara-France to claim a largely pointless interim title in the summer of 2022, ‘The Assassin Baby’ then faced his Brazilian rival in the UFC’s first-ever title quadrilogy bout.
This time, Moreno came out on top, finally winning the lengthy rivalry to cement himself as a two-time champion.
The Mexican has since lost his crown to Alexandre Pantoja, but based on his blend of offensive skills in all areas and sheer toughness, few would bet against him regaining it in the future.
More to the point, though, few fighters can match the wildness of his recent run of title fights. In fact, five of those six bouts have won him a performance of the night bonus, something almost unheard of.
Essentially, Moreno fits the old boxing stereotype of the ‘Mexican warrior’ to a tee, and when all is said and done, he’ll likely go down as a genuine UFC legend.
