The UFC is the largest MMA promotion on the planet and has great figures in this discipline such as Conor McGregor, Jorge Masvidal, Israel Adensanya and others. Despite the little support for MMA in Peru, this 2023 we will also have representatives in the most important steel cage in the world: Claudio Puelles, Daniel Soncora Gastón Bolaños and Rolando Bedoya, who recently signed for the promoter.
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Well, at the beginning of 2022, the only Peruvian fighter in UFC It was Claudio ‘El Niño’ Puelles, who remained during the pandemic, in which the contracts of many Latinos were cut, due to Visa issues.
Puelles remains in the UFC since November 2016, when he made his debut against the Mexican Martín “El Toro” Bravo in Mexico City. An epic win over Felipe Silva and a dominating showing over Marcos Mariano in the same country kept him going in the promotion.
Unfortunately, puelles He was the only Peruvian who remained in the company. Four other nationals, due to various factors, ceased to belong to UFC.
ROLANDO BEDOYA
Rolando Bedoya He is the most recent Peruvian fighter signed with UFC. “The Machine’ has been a welterweight champion (77.1 kgs.) in the Fusion Fighting Championship. He has a record of 14 wins and just one loss in 2015.
Bedoya has had great victories against rivals like Pablo D’horta from Argentina, Enrique Granados from Mexico and Cristiano Estela from Peru, In addition, he has competed in Brazil and has been fighting as a professional since 2015.
Now Rolando Bedoya trains in the Chute Boxe gym of Brazilian Diego Lima in Sao Paulo, alongside the former lightweight champion of UFC, Charles “From the Bronx” Oliveira.
DANIEL SONCORA MARCOS
Since November 2015 when the ‘Strong’ Barzola won the TUF Latin America 2, no other Peruvian has competed in the Octagon to win a contract in the UFC. Shortly after seven years, another Peruvian managed to make history and become the second Peruvian in the UFC this 2022, Daniel Marcos, ‘Soncora’.
The Peruvian dominated the favorite Brandon Lewis, hurt him with frontal kicks and even a flying knee, in addition, he controlled the octagon and avoided his opponent’s takedowns, in the program Dana White’s Contender Series.
In his UFC debut, Soncora picked up a huge second-round knockout victory over Brazilian Saimon Oliveira at UFC 283 in Rio de Janeiro.
GASTON BOLAÑOS
The Peruvian fighter has spent his entire career as an MMA fighter in the United States. After an important step through muaythai, the “Dream Killer” demonstrated his fierce striking in the Bellator promoter. For the impressive knockouts of him, UFC It didn’t take long for her to lay eyes on him.
For his first fight UFC will put Bolaños as a rival, ‘the Dragon’ Aaron Phillips on April 15 at a Fight Night event.
THE VALENTINA SHEVCHENKO CASE
There are various positions on Valentina Shevchenko. While some of her consider her as one more Peruvian, others do not include her in the list of Peruvian fighters, due to her not being born in the country and representing her native country of Kyrgyzstan.
valentine has represented the country in different muaythai competitions and even in his first fights in UFC appeared as a representative of Peru. Several years later and after the well-deserved recognition that the Kyrgyz government has given her, worldwide the blonde is increasingly identified with that country.
PERUVIANS IN THE UFC IN HISTORY
Let’s remember that Peru has been in the most famous octagon in the world, even at the beginning of the ufc successas we know it now and it is that tony desouza participated in the second event, after the acquisition of the company by the Fertitta brothers. Thus the list of Peruvians who competed in the UFC is the next:
- tony desouza
- Enrique “El Fuerte” Barzola
- Claudio “El Niño” Puelles
- Humberto Bandenay
- Jesus Pinedo
- Carlos Huachin
- Daniel Marcos, “Soncora”
- Gaston Bolanos
- Rolando Bedoya
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