After 30 years of its inception, the UFC now has a roster of fighters hailing across a total of 77 countries. Hence, fans may often find it difficult to identify the fighters’ nationalities and ethnicities. With that in mind, we’ll focus on diving deep into the details of one fighter, who’s competing in the upcoming UFC pay-per-view in Manchester – middleweight contender, Gregory Rodrigues.

Gregory Rodrigues is arguably one of the longest-tenured fighters under a UFC contract, with a decade-long experience fighting under the premier MMA promotion’s banner. But details about his personal life have always stayed under the radar. So, let’s take this time to uncover them, focusing extensively on his ethnic background.

All we know about the ethnicity of Gregory Rodrigues

Gregory Rodrigues was born on 17 February 1992 in a city that is full of attractions related to Brazilian culture and history, named Porto Velho, in the state of Rondonia. Hence, he is a Brazilian by nationality, but if we move over to find his ethnicity, we can’t be too sure. Rodriguez has never spoken about his ethnic background so it makes it hard for us to pinpoint the exact community he belongs to.

The city of Porto Velho or the state of Rondonia has a cultural composition of people from the Northeastern part of Brazil, from the South-Central parts of the country, and even some indigenous communities. So, the only conclusion we can make here is that Gregory Rodrigues could be a representative and a member of any of these communities.

Also, when we start talking about ‘Robocop’s religion, we can’t be sure at the front either, but the popular belief is that he is a devout Christian. Meanwhile, representing Brazil in the UFC isn’t the only thing that makes Gregory Rodrigues tick because he has another goal in mind. He laid bare his thoughts about that after registering a win in his last fight.

‘Robocop’ aims to become the “king” of middleweights

As we all know, the middleweight division is as hot as it has ever been. Besides the announced title fight between Dricus du Plessis and Israel Adesanya, contenders like Sean Strickland, Robert Whittaker, and even Khamzat Chimaev are believed to be in the title talks too. But that hasn’t affected Gregory Rodrigues, who aims to capture the title himself. His current run is all about that because he believes anything can happen in the UFC.

“If you see the way Dricus Du Plessis did, he started with Brad, and he did his job to get to the title… I don’t know what the UFC is going to offer me, but I’m happy with everything they do, and they do a good job, but I already showed I belong at the top,” said Gregory Rodrigues after his win over Brad Tavares. “My goal is to be the champion of this division. I want to be the king of this division.” Can he succeed? Well, only time will be the one to give us that answer.

With two wins on the trot, Gregory Rodrigues would be looking to clinch a third one this weekend against Christian Leroy Duncan at UFC 304. It will be interesting to see how he fares in this fight and if he can become the 4th Brazilian UFC middleweight champion in the future.