Athletes
Santiago Luna Has Put In The Work
Youngest Male On The UFC Roster Looks To Make Memorable Debut Sept. 13 At Noche UFC
There’s going to be a lot of talk about debuting bantamweight Santiago Luna being the youngest male fighter on the current UFC roster, and rightfully so. But the 21-year-old from Tijuana has packed a lot of living into those 21 years, and things like that have a way of showing up on fight night.
“I think the circumstances that I've been in have made me the fighter that I am right now,” said Luna, who is currently 6-0 as a pro with six finishes. But his life in combat sports began far before his 2023 professional debut.
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“I've sacrificed a lot ever since I was 15, 16 years old and started moving around, well, even before that I was moving around because my parents got deported when we were really young,” said Luna, a native of San Diego. “I started wrestling when I was in Tijuana when I was eight years old. But my dad was moving with my brothers, so I had to focus, and I would sacrifice by not being with my family and just be training in different facilities like the one in Tijuana or different ones in Arizona, where I used to live too with cousins, but not with my actual family. So the sacrifice for me was time with my family, but I think it was worth it.”
The wrestling mats became his sanctuary, and in the process, he got good at it, becoming a four-time National wrestling champion for Mexico, a two-time Pan American qualifier and a two-time World Championship qualifier. Needless to say, Luna was thinking of the Olympics, but wrestling isn’t exactly a big deal in Mexico, so the funding wasn’t there for him to get to the tournaments he needed to.
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“When I was doing it, I would train three times a day and that (making the Olympics) was the goal,” Luna said. “I started qualifying for the Junior Olympics and then, obviously, I was with the Mexican National team. Later on, I started qualifying for Pan Americans and Worlds, but there was no economic support for the team or for myself to go to the tournaments that were in Spain and all these far places. And my family did not have the possibility to take me to those, so that is the only reason why I never competed in them. But I'm sure if I would've, I would've done great and I would've been on the Olympic team by now.”
One dream deferred, Luna moved on to another one, and in just six fights he’s at the MMA equivalent of the Olympics, the UFC. Is it too much too soon, especially against an experienced opponent like Quang Le? Don’t tell that to “BorderBoy.”
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“I never reject fights,” he said. “if they offered me a guy that's 15-0 and the opportunity is right there, I'm always going to accept the opportunity. There were a lot of people telling me not to take this, to wait a little bit and just wait for the moment. But I'm preparing so good and I've been preparing for so long that I feel comfortable. I don't feel the pressure that I think other people are feeling.”
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And on fight night, when the lights are on him and he’s about to make the walk?
“I don’t think I’ll really be nervous,” said Luna. “I've put in the work over the years, obviously I’ve been training wrestling ever since I was eight years old, and I’ve been in the atmosphere so long that I'm not really nervous about it.”
Noche UFC: Lopes vs Silva took place live Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas on September 13,2025. 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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