Mexican MMA, specifically in the UFC, has taken a hit.
Recently, Mexico had two undisputed UFC champions in [autotag]Brandon Moreno[/autotag] and [autotag]Alexa Grasso[/autotag], an interim UFC champion in [autotag]Yair Rodriguez[/autotag] and a title challenger in [autotag]Irene Aldana[/autotag], who was slated to fight women’s MMA great Amanda Nunes.
Fast-forward to 2025 and all that is gone. There are no Mexican UFC champions or current contenders scheduled to fight for a belt.
Yet, despite the somewhat demoralizing outlook, veteran coach [autotag]Raul Arvizu[/autotag] is confident big things are coming for his country. Arvizu, head coach of Entram Gym in Tijuana and the original coach of Moreno, has seen this story before.
“The sport never grows at a 45-degree angle,” Arvizu told Hablemos MMA in Spanish. “It always goes up, there’s a lot of excitement, and it blows up, and then it comes down a bit. It goes up, and then comes down a bit.
“So I think these last two years, there was a period where the sport had a bit of a fall. But from my experience, from what I can sense, we’re going to enter a two (or) three year period of growth in the sport of MMA.”
Although Moreno, Grasso, Aldana and Rodriguez still remain high in the rankings in their respective divisions, and could very well find themselves challenging for UFC titles in the future, Arvizu sees other Mexican names coming into the picture soon.
“What happened with Brandon and Alexa, that was a project from the UFC,” Arvizu said. “Brandon was in the developmental program, in ‘TUF,’ so the new generations are coming. What we saw was fruits of what was planted 10 years ago, and the UFC is just a couple of years into reinvesting into Mexico again. So I think new talent is coming, and in three or four years, we’ll see more names in the top 15.”
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Mexico may not be at the very top of the UFC at this moment, with no standing champions, but that doesn’t mean that nothing is brewing. Arvizu sees a lot of investment in the country and expects it to flourish soon enough.
“There’s more (Mexican) fighters in the UFC than ever before, there’s the (UFC) developmental program (in Mexico), there are events in Mexico, UFC Fight Pass is supporting several Mexican promotions – so all that will reap a reward,” Arvizu said. “I think those investments started eight months (to) a year ago, and as you know when things are first starting, there are mistakes and there’s a learning curve. … I think there’s an expansion coming.”
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