Whether it was Julio Cesar Chavez’s dominance through the 1980s and early ’90s, Oscar De La Hoya’s days as the Golden Boy in the 1990s and early 2000s or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s ongoing rise to supremacy, Mexico has always boasted its fair share of impressive boxers.
“I keep saying this, but it’s true: the baddest dudes in the world, throughout the history of the world, have come from Mexico and Latin America,” UFC President Dana White told the media in Mexico City in August. “Your Salvador Sanchezes, your Julio Cesar Chavezes, and the list goes on and on. In the MMA world, all of those guys exist in [Mexico] right now, and you’re going to see them popping up over the next six years. You’re going to see Mexico start to dominate, like it did in boxing.”
Mexico hasn’t boasted the same sort of royalty in MMA compared to boxing—that’s Brazil. Still, it’s done a solid job of birthing some of the better fighters the sport has ever seen.
Here’s a list of the top 10 fighters of Mexican heritage in MMA history.