The upcoming UFC Noche (306) card on September 14 is aimed primarily at a Mexican audience. And one of the moves that Dana White and Co. had under their sleeves has been disclosed. It seems that the choice of ring girls has been heavily influenced by the Mexican theme, keeping up with the tradition to commemorate the Mexican Independence Day.

And the UFC is determined, in even the smallest ways, whether it is having a Mariachi band, or by its choice of ring-girls, to make the Mexican fans feel at home. After all, the historic card has stiff competition from the biggest Mexican combat sports star, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, who is fighting not only on the same night but in the same city. The UFC Noche will feature eight ring girls for the fights. The ufcespanol introduced the ring girls in an Instagram post. Let’s take a look.

Hannah Esparaza

Hannah is from the United States and has been a professional model since 2017. She has been a former college athlete, who was a part of the Track and Field team at the University of San Francisco where she got a BA in Psychology.

Ayled Coreno

The 21-year-old, originally from Mexico City, studies gastronomy. Her first approach to combat sports was boxing until she discovered MMA. Just a day back, an excited Coreno posted images and clips of the Sphere as she wrote, “UFC NIGHT this Saturday September 14th 🙂” while also giving details on how the Mexicans can watch the event.

Ariadna Vidal

The 25-year-old from Guadalajara also lives in Mexico City and is dedicated to acting. The ring expressed her excitement with an Instagram post, as she wrote, “OCTAGON GIRLS! See you this Saturday at @ufc to present the weigh-ins and fights of the @spherevegas in Las Vegas 🥊💝” along with the snaps of the Sphere.

Dany Lule

The 26-year-old is from Michoacán and studied Agroindustrial Engineering. She seemed absolutely in awe over being selected as the ring girl. Two days back, she posted a clip of herself, writing, “Tonight we went to the half-check-in of the most important event @ufc @ufcespanol “UFC NIGHT” 💀 where I and my teammates were introduced to the media as the First Generation of Mexican Octagon Girls. Happy happy happy Always proud to carry my flag 🇲🇽 and show it off in the world.”

Valeria Gutiérrez

The 23-year-old is from Monterrey studies fashion, and is dedicated to athletics. A July 29 post on her Instagram features her running in an event, as she wrote, “What if I run 15k? What if I run 21k? What if I run 30k?”

Karla Espíritu

The 23-year-old lives in the Mexican capital and has a degree in Administration.

Daniela Houghton

The 25-year-old lives in Mexico City, and is from Hidalgo. The ring girl was seen promoting the event on her Instagram with a clip that featured her standing in front of the sphere.

Mariel Elisa

The Model took to her Instagram to upload several snaps and clips of the event as she wrote on her Instagram stories, “Grateful is an understatement” tagging the UFC and Dana White. Meanwhile, the UFC president had something interesting to reveal about the ring girls.

Dana White’s thoughts behind selecting the UFC 306 ring girls

What makes the ring girls special and why the UFC has chosen to go with an almost entirely new line-up for ring girls is, as we have already mentioned, to appeal to the Mexican audience. The UFC CEO Dana White himself had confirmed that in a conversation with Johnny Resendiz on his YouTube.

“This show, this love letter to Mexico, I call it, is authentic—authentic to the people, their heritage. I mean, even the octagon girls; there are nine octagon girls, and they’re all first-generation Mexican, from Mexico,” White had said. Although initially White had talked about nine, ESPN MMA had later revealed that there would be eight of them. Six are native-born Mexicans and the other two are second-generation.

This once again shows just how committed the UFC is to making the Mexican fans happy. The UFC, after all, is aggressively targeting the Mexico market, and for good reason. Combat sports seemingly has a huge market in America’s southern neighbor, which has produced the second most boxing champions in the world, after only the USA. It is of no surprise that the promotion is shelling out more than $20 million to make the event a success.

The card, of course, will also feature six 90-second short films about the contributions and stellar legacy of Mexico to combat sports, not to mention the entire theme of the event would be around Mexico and its rich and beautiful culture. What are your thoughts about this upcoming extravagant event? Are you excited? Tell us in the comments!