Brandon Moreno, the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s flyweight champion, sat on a gym mat and stretched his lower body while music from the Argentine pop group La K’onga blared through speakers overhead.
While many nearby businesses were closed for Independence Day, Moreno was working during the U.S. holiday as part of the final stages of preparation for his upcoming title defense, with hints of his Mexican culture scattered throughout the small, private facility on the outskirts of the Las Vegas Strip. On the wall overlooking the training space, a large portrait of Moreno, the U.F.C.’s first Mexican-born champion, depicts Moreno smiling with the championship belt and his country’s flag draped over his shoulders.
Moreno’s rise has brought a spotlight to the U.F.C.’s ambitions to expand in the country, an effort bolstered by the emergence of two more Mexican-born champions: the women’s flyweight title-winner Alexa Grasso and the men’s interim featherweight belt-holder Yair Rodríguez.
“It is part of our future and I feel very grateful with life to be an example for the Mexican people and Mexican kids who can use myself as inspiration for their own careers,” Moreno said in an interview.
On Saturday, in the co-main event of U.F.C. 290, Moreno will defend his…
