Athletes
Michelle Montague | Ready To Make History
As The First Woman From New Zealand To Make The Walk To The Octagon, Michelle Montague Wants To Make The Most Of Her Opportunities In Perth
Making history by showing up is a unique situation, but it’s the one Michelle Montague earned when she signed on the dotted line to join the UFC roster, making her the first New Zealand woman to do so.
It’s an accomplishment she rightly wears with pride and gratitude, but the 31-year-old doesn’t want her list of accomplishments to stop there as she approaches her UFC debut at UFC Fight Night: Ulberg vs Reyes in Perth.
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“It feels like just yesterday, it was my first time in the gym or visiting a different gym and seeing the level of girls there and being like, ‘Oh my gosh,’” Montague said. “To have that now in one hand is very, very cool, but also, at the same time, I'm like, ‘It doesn't mean anything unless you do something with it,’ right? You don't want to be the first girl and then have people say that, you know, ‘Yeah, but that girl (didn’t win).’ You want to be the one that they're proud to say it was, so now that's cool that that's written down, but now we've got to do something with it.”
Through six professional fights, Montague has given plenty of reasons to believe she can hit the ground running in the bantamweight division.
She won each of her fights via rear-naked choke, and while she is happy to show her full skill set, she’s more than willing to keep turning in the submission wins.
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“I'm a grippy little bugger,” she said. “Once I get them, it's quite hard to get away. I didn't have any combat sports background, so when I started, the thing that I was able to compete in almost every weekend was jiu-jitsu. Even though I liked wrestling the most in my brain because it was like rugby and striking seemed the most important, what I ended up doing the most was jiu jitsu. I have a lot of reps in those positions, and when you favor something, you start working on it more accidentally.”
Although she is proud to represent New Zealand, she gets her training done in the United States at American Top Team. There, she is able to reap the benefits not only of the world-class and experienced coaches but also a wealth of high-level women at the highest level, including current bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison.
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Training across the world is a sacrifice, though. Montague relishes the fact that her debut is close to home, and she was able to spend a week in New Zealand before arriving in Perth for fight week. She described the week as “grounding” and said the experience gives her an “authentic, raw feeling.”
“When things aren't going great in whatever way, you think, ‘Man, I wish I could just give my or dad a little hug or see my nephews and stuff,’ you know? Now that I'm four years into being in the States, I feel like I've got a bit of rhythm going in what I'm doing… As someone that's such a homebody, that's pretty difficult, so that's why it's so important to have faith and have good friends around you over there that can be like your family. But, there's nothing quite like home.”
Montague isn’t all too caught up with the pomp and circumstance of her UFC debut bout against Luana Carolina, saying she was aware of a few different names available before the tie with the Brazilian was settled.
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She is also happy to mix her martial arts. Plan A is getting Carolina down to the mat, but she doesn’t seem overly stressed about the prospect of showing off her array of skills. What she does hope is that people get a good sense of who she is as a fighter, and getting to do that in front of friends and family makes the experience all the sweeter.
“I call a spade a spade,” she said. “I am very much myself the whole way through. You're not going to get something different from what I've been all week this week out there on Sunday morning. You can't predict the exact way you're going to feel when you walk in, in this complete new setting, but it balanced so beautifully with the fact that it's close to home.”
UFC 320: Ankalaev vs Pereira 2 took place live from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 4, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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