Mexico may have its strongest championship representation in the
UFC to date, but that doesn’t mean the promotion will be heading
South of the Border this year.
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With Brandon
Moreno (flyweight), Alexa
Grasso (women’s flyweight) and Yair
Rodriguez (interim featherweight) currently holding titles, it
would seem to make sense to stage a big pay-per-view in Mexico in
the near future. According to Dana White, it isn’t likely to happen
in 2023.
“We would obviously love to get back to Mexico and do that, but I
don’t know if it’s in the plans right now,” he said at the UFC on
ESPN 43 post-fight press conference. “We’re building a [Performance
Institute] down there right now, and wait until you guys see that.
I can’t wait to share that with you, actually. The renderings for
the UFC PI in Mexico. It’s going to be badass.
“You’re not wrong. We got three Mexican champions. We probably
should be heading to Mexico, or at least doing a Cinco De Mayo
[card], but that didn’t work out either.”
The promotion hasn’t been to Mexico since 2019, when a Yair
Rodriguez–Jeremy
Stephens main event ended in just 15 seconds due to an
accidental eye poke. The Octagon first touched down in the country
on Nov. 15, 2014, when Fabricio
Werdum defeated Mark Hunt in a
heavyweight title bout in the UFC 180 headliner. Even if an event
doesn’t happen this year, White still says he recognizes the
importance of the market.
“Some of the baddest human beings to walk the face of the earth
have come out of Mexico, and me being a huge boxing fan growing up
too, Mexico’s always been an important market to me,” White said.
“It took longer than I expected it to, but – it did and it didn’t,
I guess. I’m impatient and expect things a lot quicker than they
happen. The UK and Mexico were both very important to me.”