MELBOURNE, Australia – Montana De La Rosa picked up her third straight win in the UFC’s women’s flyweight division Saturday night, and the momentum has her thinking out loud.
De La Rosa (10-4 MMA, 3-0 UFC) submitted Nadia Kassem (5-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) with an armbar in the second round on the main card of UFC 234, which took place Saturday at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia. The main card aired on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and UFC Fight Pass.
And because De La Rosa was part of that pay-per-view, in the future, presuming the quality of her her opponents continues to rise, she’d like to be getting paychecks that are commensurate with her placement on cards like UFC 234, and the tier level of her opponents.
“I’m not where I want to be financially, so of course I want to keep getting more and more money,” De La Rosa said backstage after the fight. “If I’m on the pay-per-view, I might as well be getting paid what the pay-per-view fighters get paid.
“… If they’re going to fight me against tougher opponents that I’m risking getting hurt against and moving up the ranks, I might as well get paid a little more.”
At just 23, De La Rosa is one of the UFC’s rising contenders at 125 pounds. All three of her wins in the promotion have come by submission.
But before she can get her eyes on a potential matchup with current champion Valentina Shevchenko, she has to build to it – and thinks a fight with Paige VanZant would be a good start.
“I’m 3-0 in the division – that’s the most wins any of the girls have in the division,” she said. “I’m right there with the best of the best. I kind of talked about fighting Paige VanZant just to get my name out there a little bit more. I don’t know where I sit from here on out – I think I got my name out a little bit here on this pay-per-view card, so whatever the UFC wants to give me.”
For more from De La Rosa, check out the video above.
And for complete coverage of UFC 234, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
