Montana De La Rosa may be only 24, but as a homeowner, mother, wife, teacher and Top-15 ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight, her life resembles that of someone much older.
A typical day in Texas starts with getting her 8-year-old daughter Zalyn ready for school: preparing breakfast; getting her dressed; packing her lunch. After that she’ll drop Zalyn off at school, before joining husband Mark De La Rosa -- a fellow UFC alum -- on a run or a strength and conditioning workout. From there she’ll go home and attend to household duties like cooking dinner, fit in an afternoon workout, then walk up the street to pick up Zalyn from school. The evening is, like the morning and afternoon, characterised by hustle: after an hour of family “downtime” she teaches a class at Genesis jiu-jitsu before fitting in a final training session, then embarks home to facilitate dinners, showers and bed time.
Speaking to Sherdog.com in a wide-ranging interview during a rare 15-minutes she had to spare, De La Rosa shared her thoughts on her most recent UFC bout “Down Under,” her attempts to secure a new contract with the organization, being part of the first husband-wife duo in UFC history and the status of the female flyweight division two years after its inception.
“I thought I fought her great,” De La Rosa said of her UFC 234 bout, which saw her dominate then-undefeated Nadia Kassem on the ground before finishing her with a second-round armbar. “She had a lot of previous knockouts. I really wanted to stand a bang but I feel like I played it safe and got the job done. I submitted her in the second round. Overall I think I wrestled like a smart, Top-15 fighter.”
De La Rosa made headlines from her win after throwing shade at her UFC contract during her Octagon interview -- telling Jon Anik her intention was to burn through the last three fights on her “The Ultimate Fighter” agreement before securing “what a Top-10 fighter should get paid.” While a new contract hasn’t come to fruition at the time of this writing, she did walk away with a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonus for the beatdown she put on Kassem. The money, she says, has gone some way in alleviating the financial strain that was on her mind in Melbourne.
“We actually just got the [bonus money] this week,” De La Rosa said. “It went through, that felt really nice. Except for the fact that Australia took 33 percent out for taxes -- that kind of sucked. But it definitely felt really good to have more than I thought it would [going in]. It gives us a little cushion. I still want to fight [again] right away, but it definitely helps relieve the stress to realize that the bills are taken care of for months to come.”
“My manager, I think; he’s working on a [new agreement] for my next fight,” she continued. “Possibly against Paige [VanZant] but I’m not sure where’s she at the moment. I think she hurt her arm or something. If I got that fight, I think I would ask for a new contract. But for anyone else, any of the lesser opponents who don’t have a big name, I’ll probably just run out this contract and wait for the next [one].”
De La Rosa has had VanZant in her sights for a while now, calling out “12 Gauge” in the aftermath of her February fight and then briefly being linked to a scrap at with her UFC 236 that didn’t materialize. Whilst De La Rosa is soft-spoken, the quintessential does-her-talking-in-the-cage kind of woman, she’s stepped up her social media game in the hopes of locking VanZant -- one of the highest profile fighters in the company -- down.
“To get a fight these days, you really have to put it out there on social media,” she said candidly. “There’s just no other way. You don’t get any recognition if you just text the matchmaker and say ‘hey, can we make this happen?’ They don’t really care. They get those texts every day. They want the ones that the fans want to see, and all that. I get it; it’s a business. They want to know that you can sell your self.”
It’s an interesting observation from De La Rosa, who comes with a backstory that seems like prime real estate promotionally. She is after all one half of the first husband-wife combo in UFC history, possesses an undefeated Octagon record of 3-0 with three submissions and has every bit the same aspirations as promotional golden girl Michelle Waterson vis-à-vis attaining “Mom-champ” status. When pressed, De La Rosa admits her surprise that the UFC hasn’t done more to tell her story, but is also adamant about remaining patient.
“I’m surprised they haven’t yet,” she said. “Maybe after a few more fights, they’ll start promoting [us as a married couple].
“Yeah I do feel like I should be promoted more,” she later elaborated. “I’ve been in the UFC a couple of years now. But if you think about it, most of the girls that they’re selling -- like Paige [VanZant] or Rose [Namajunas] -- they have been in the UFC for four, almost five, years. So I’m being patient. I think it’s just time. I just have to keep fighting, get more recognition from the fans. I just feel like I need to be patient, I just need to keep on winning, and it will come.”
One thing that gets in the way of her plan -- to keep racking up wins and increase her profile with the fans and the brass -- is the lack of opportunities matchmaking wise. De La Rosa debuted on the “TUF 26” Finale back in December 2017 but has fought only twice in the succeeding 17 months. She says, it’s not for lack of trying.
“I have most of [the women’s 125-pound division] on Instagram,” she disclosed. “And they’re posting, at least once or twice a month, about wanting to get a fight, [asking] when their next fight is going to be. They’re all just waiting to hear from the UFC.
“I feel like there are so many fighters getting signed to the UFC,” she continued. “There’s Dana White’s Contender Series. There are so many fights -- it’s so hard for people to keep up with really because there are so many weight classes. I feel like they’re adding too many people maybe. They have a lot of people to manage, a lot of people to get fights. We end up not fighting more than once or twice a year. It’s really hard to climb up the ranks and get to where you’re fighting for a belt when you’re only fighting once or twice a year. And get paid! It’s hard to make it a full-time commitment when you’re only fighting once or twice a year.”
Before De La Rosa departs she shares her thoughts on the upcoming flyweight title fight at 238, where incumbent titleholder Valentina Shevchenko will attempt to ward off the resurgent Jessica Eye. De La Rosa sees “The Bullet” walking away with her belt firmly in tow.
“That is a tough one,” she said. “It really could go either way depending on the day. I feel like Schevchenko will probably keep it a more boring fight, keep it on the outside, and just pitter-patter her up [to win a decision].”
Jacob Debets is a law graduate and writer from Melbourne, Australia. He has been an MMA fan for more than a decade and trains in muay Thai and boxing at DMDs MMA in Brunswick. He is currently writing a book analyzing the economics and politics of the MMA industry. You can view more of his writing at jacobdebets.com.