There are only a select few fighters from Mexico who have touched UFC gold.
The headliner of UFC Mexico City this weekend, Brandon Moreno was the first Mexican-born fighter to take home a championship and he wasn’t the last. Two years after Moreno’s flyweight title win over Deiveson Figueiredo, more champions were crowned with Alexa Grasso and Yair Rodriguez (interim).
Mexico had three reigning champions at one point in 2023.
While Moreno made history as the first Mexican-born fighter to win a UFC title, former champions like Cain Velasquez and Tony Ferguson are of Mexican descent, the two-time heavyweight champ Velasquez representing his ‘Brown Pride’ with a tattoo on his chest, displaying ‘Mexican heart’ in the Octagon.
Regardless of whether they’re born north or south of the U.S-Mexico border, Bloody Elbow ranks the top-5 Mexican UFC fighters of all time.
5. Yair Rodriguez
Fighting out Chihuahua, Mexico, Yair Rodriguez was one win away from becoming an undisputed champion.
‘The Ultimate Fighter Latin America’ winner started off his UFC career strong at 8-1 (1 NC) before falling short of a win against Max Holloway in a competitive fight.
Rodriguez eventually bounced back with two stoppage wins over Brian Ortega and Josh Emmett, winning the interim featherweight title the same night then-champ Alexander Volkanovski unsuccessfully challenged Islam Mahachev for the lightweight title.
The 5’11” Rodriguez stood a tall test for Volkanovski, however, in the third round, the striker was taken down and stopped with punches at UFC 276.
Rodriguez has wins over Brian Ortega, Josh Emmett, The Korean Zombie, Dan Hooker and BJ Penn. ‘El Pantera’ has nine performance bonuses in his 10 wins – tied with Brandon Moreno for most wins as a Mexican-born fighter.
4. Alexa Grasso
Alexa Grasso is the first and only fighter to defeat Valentina Shevchenko in the UFC women’s flyweight division.
Beating Shevchenko in itself is hard enough, just ask former two-division champion Amanda Nunes, who went the distance with ‘Bullet’ both times. But, Alexa Grasso pulled off the seemingly impossible at UFC 285 when she came face-to-face with Shevchenko, the current pound-for-pound queen.
In round 4 of their title fight, Grasso secured the back of Shevchenko after she had spinned. Grasso locked in a rear-naked choke, squeezing as tight as she can until Shevchenko tapped out, half of her face red from the pressure.
Grasso got her hand raised in the rematch, though, it wasn’t a win but a split draw in a super-competitive fight at Noche UFC. Shevchenko left no doubt in the trilogy, taking Grasso down at will in at UFC 306 in September.
3. Brandon Moreno
You might be a little surprised Brandon Moreno isn’t #1 on our list, considering he is THE Mexican star in MMA. But at 31 years old and no successful title defenses, we believe there’s still work to do.
Make no mistake, Moreno has had an amazing career in the UFC. ‘The Assassin Baby’ has beaten Deiveson Figueiredo and Kai Kara-France (both twice) along with top contenders Amir Albazi, Brandon Royval and Jussier Formiga.
With a win over Steve Erceg this weekend in the main event of UFC Mexico City, Tijuana’s Brandon Moreno would enter the history books as the Mexican-born UFC fighter with the most wins (11).
Moreno has 3 losses (exhibition included) to the current champion Alexandre Pantoja, hoping to one day become a three-time champion for Mexico.
2. Henry Cejudo
Henry Cejudo’s not really one to rep the Mexican flag, having represented the USA in the 2008 Olympics, but perhaps the former champion’s heritage is shown through the way he fights.
A TKO loss to Demetrious Johnson in his first title fight back in 2015 didn’t stop Cejudo from chasing UFC gold, it only made him hungrier.
Cejudo came back with a vengeance in 2017, going on a 6-fight tear across the flyweight and bantamweight divisions. The former champion dethroned one of the greatest fighters of all time Demetrious Johnson in 2018, later going on to defend the title against TJ Dillashaw in 32 seconds.
At bantamweight, Cejudo persevered in his fight against a dangerous Marlon Moraes, overcoming early adversity to become a simultaneous two-division champion. Covered in blood, Cejudo retired on top after TKO’ing Dominick Cruz in 2020.
Cejudo challenged himself against then-champ Aljamain Sterling, current champ Merab Dvalishvili and top contender Song Yadong in his not-so-successful return following a three-year layoff.
1. Cain Velasquez
In the 2010’s, the baddest man on the planet had Mexican roots.
A fighter out of San Jose, California, Cain Velasquez defeated a murderer’s row of heavyweights in his heyday. Velasquez’s feats include taking out a prime 265lb+ Brock Lesnar in the first round, repeat wins over Junior Dos Santos and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and much more.
Velasquez still holds onto the longest heavyweight title reign of all time at 896 days – something to behold for Jon Jones, who could end up breaking the record.
Velasquez went 12-3 in the UFC with his final fight coming at the hands of a powerful Francis Ngannou in 2019.
Win, lose or draw, not many fighters embody the Mexican fighting spirit like Cain Velasquez does.