UFC Performance Institute
Mexico City Performance Institute | Changing Lives & The UFC Roster
UFC’s Third Performance Institute Nears Completion In Mexico City
The idea of opening a UFC Performance Institute in Mexico City first came to fruition back in 2019.
The Las Vegas location, which is attached to the UFC headquarters, opened back in 2017 and was the first of its kind. Then came the Shanghai location, which was unveiled in the summer of 2019, which aimed to serve as a hub for athletes in Asia to train and develop.
That same philosophy is being carried into the Mexico City PI, which was unveiled to members of the media for the first time this week ahead of the UFC’s return to Mexico City. In addition to allowing UFC fighters to utilize the resources the PI provides, UFC CEO Dana White also has other ideas for what he hopes it is used for.
This has been a dream and goal of mine since 2001. To finally be here and walk the halls of the @ufc Performance Institute in Mexico City is a monumental moment in the history of our sport. The impact this facility will have on Mexico, as well as, both Central and South America… pic.twitter.com/DZyhLikXkA
— danawhite (@danawhite) February 23, 2024
“What is different about the Mexico PI is, I’m not looking for fighters that are under contract with us to go over there and train; they can, obviously, but what I am more interested in is taking kids off the streets that don’t have a lot of opportunity,” White said. “Bringing them in and having them look at the UFC PI as a home, whether it is after school or whenever they need to get away, coming there and training and not just participate in mixed martial arts. I don’t think every kid that goes through there is going to be a fighter, but some of them will be coaches, some of them will be jiu-jitsu coaches. Somehow, some way they will become involved in the sport and will help grow it.”
The PI will be open for UFC athletes to train at, similar to the ones in Las Vegas and Shanghai, but it will also feature a full-time academy that will start with 20 athletes and grow to 25 athletes in year three.
“There will be a full-time operation of people that will be put through our combine and talent selection process, and then they'll receive awards of funding into our academy, as we do in China,” Senior Vice President of the Performance Institute, Duncan French said. “We're also going to do a monthly intake of street kids into the facility, looking who has got potential talent, who can show us something, and then really start them on their journey to success.”
Fighters like former flyweight champion Brandon Moreno can attest to the resources that the PI provides to fighters in a variety of different aspects. As someone who calls Las Vegas their home, Moreno has spent a significant amount of time working with the team at the Vegas location.
“The most important thing to me was the recovery,” Moreno said. “I think I'm talking for a whole lot of different fighters, sometimes we are so focused in the gym, so focused in the grind, and we forget we have to take care of our bodies because we start to grow up and with the passage of time, pain here, pain there.”
Being able to assist the athletes in ways that they will continue to use throughout their entire fight career is what French says is one of the biggest resources that they offer.
Photo Gallery | UFC Performance Institute Unveiled In Mexico City
“I think what we try to do is remove the noise and make it as easy and as efficient for them as possible, and when I say them, that's everything from a UFC world champion down to someone that's just walking into the academy on day one,” French said. “What we're trying to do is take all the constituent parts of performance and figure it out for you and then essentially give it to you on a plate. Our system flexes and pivots to try and meet every single athlete where they need to be met and what we can do to support them.”
The past year has been huge for Mexican MMA. Back in 2022, Moreno became the first Mexican-born UFC champion, followed by Yair Rodriguez claiming the interim featherweight title in February, and Alexa Grasso pulling off a huge upset over Valentina Shevchenko to claim the flyweight title. Last September, UFC hosted the first Noche UFC event on Mexican Independence Day in Las Vegas, an event White hopes to have every year.
Now, with the opening of the PI in Mexico City, it feels as if all the stars are aligning, and the energy in Mexico matches that.
“There's so much momentum around the UFC, and going to some of these local gyms recently and starting the talent recruitment process and seeing where the standards are and who might be good fighters in these local promotions that we can invite to our first combine, there's so much energy and enthusiasm. We've got to harness that energy and then take all the energy and direct it in a real, effective, and efficient way that drives success for the UFC and creates the next Mexican world champion.”
Rodriguez touched on the current and future impact that the PI will bring to his home country.
“You can see young fighters such as Raul Rosas Jr, Daniel Zellhuber, and many others, young guys that are getting into the UFC, and more are coming,” Rodriguez said. “I think it's pretty clear what the sport is in Mexico, how much it has been growing and how much it's going to grow. It has already been ten years since the UFC came to Mexico City and the sport is going massively here, so it's having a huge impact already.”
French said every time he posts about the PI on social media, people are asking about when they are going to expand to more cities. The influence that the PI has is bigger than he can even imagine or describe, and most recently, the location in Vegas was featured on the Today Show.
“The exponential growth of what the Performance Institute as an entity and that service infrastructure, be that talent development or all the other performance services and resources that fighters need, I'm really proud of it,” French said. “It's like my little baby, but to see the growth and the impact that has on people, it’s second to none, you can't ask for anything better.”
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The impact of the Mexico City location is bigger than most can probably imagine, but the stars competing right now and hailing from Mexico are a pretty good start for what is to come.
“Some of the baddest human beings that have ever walked this face of this Earth are Mexican,” White said. “Mexicans are tough, durable, strong, hardworking people. I think that the Mexico PI is going to produce more talent than we even realize, and I think it’s going to change the entire sport in Mexico over the next five years.”
UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs Royval 2 took place live from Arena CDMX in Mexico City, Mexico on February 24, 2024. See the Prelims / Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
