Mexico and England are set to kick off at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City tonight at 8 p.m. ET (1 a.m. BST, Monday July 6) in the FIFA World Cup 2026 Round of 16, and the build-up has already been a soap opera. FIFA tried to shift the kickoff six hours earlier, allegedly due to incoming thunderstorms over Mexico City, only to backtrack after both associations made their displeasure very clear. Mexico head coach Javier Aguirre called the proposed change a “kick in the stomach” before FIFA quietly dropped the idea.
Mexico vs. England
Playing at an altitude of 7,220 feet at a ground where Mexico have lost just twice in 89 matches. England, meanwhile, needed two Harry Kane goals in the 74th minute to scramble past DR Congo in the Round of 32, with Kane becoming the first English player to score twice in a World Cup knockout match since Gary Lineker in 1990. The two nations have met just once at a World Cup, England beat Mexico 2-0 in the 1966 group stage, on the way to lifting the trophy. England have won their last four meetings overall, but none of those were played at altitude, in front of 87,000 Mexicans, with a place in the quarterfinals on the line.
While the footballers sort that out, here is the more important question: if you lined up each country’s five best MMA fighters of all time, who wins?
Mexico’s Lineup
Brandon Moreno “The Assassin Baby”
From making piñatas in Tijuana to becoming the first Mexican-born UFC champion in history, Brandon Moreno’s story is the kind Hollywood would probably ruin if they tried to adapt it. The 125-pound flyweight holds a 23-10-2 record and fought Deiveson Figueiredo four times in one of the most entertaining rivalries the flyweight division has ever produced. He submitted Figueiredo at UFC 263 to claim the title, then defended it via TKO at UFC 283, becoming a two-time champion in the process. He trained under Team Fortis MMA and carries 11 submission wins, making his ground game something you’d rather not find yourself in.
The Tijuana native started training at 12, once described Rocky Balboa as one of his heroes, and has the kind of cage presence that makes the crowd lean in every time he walks out.
Yair Rodriguez “El Pantera”
Yair Rodriguez is the kind of fighter who makes you forget what you were watching before he showed up. Born in Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua, the featherweight built a career around taekwondo-based striking, unorthodox movement, and the kind of creativity that has earned him nine UFC bonuses, the most of any Mexico-born fighter in company history.
He submitted Josh Emmett in February 2023 to win the interim featherweight title, and his fifth-round, last-second elbow knockout of Chan Sung Jung at 4:59 remains one of the most iconic finishes in UFC history. A black belt in taekwondo and a Valle Flow Striking product, El Pantera has been in five Fight of the Night bonuses over his career. He got his start winning the first TUF LATAM season back in 2014, which tells you this was always where he was headed.
Alexa Grasso
On March 4, 2023, at UFC 285, Alexa Grasso choked out Valentina Shevchenko in the fourth round to become the UFC women’s flyweight champion, the first Mexican and Latin American woman to hold a UFC title. The Guadalajara-born fighter carries a 17-5-1 record and made history against the most dominant women’s champion of the last decade. She went on to draw with Shevchenko in the rematch via split decision, keeping her belt, before eventually dropping it in a third fight at UFC 306 in September 2024.
Grasso is an orthodox striker who lands 4.11 significant strikes per minute and sits at 5’5″ with a 66″ reach. She has trained at Lobo Gym in Guadalajara alongside Diego Lopes, and at 32 years old, is far from done.
Diego Lopes
Technically, Diego Lopes was born in Manaus, Brazil, but he moved to Mexico at 19, built his career there, trains at Lobo Gym in Guadalajara, opened a gym called Brazilian Warriors in Puebla, and walks out waving both the Brazilian and Mexican flags. At this point, Mexico has claimed him, and he has claimed Mexico right back. His UFC record is 28-8-0 with 10 KOs and 12 submissions, and he challenged for the featherweight title twice against Alexander Volkanovski in 2025. He knocked out Sodiq Yusuff at UFC 300 in 1:29 and Pat Sabatini at UFC 295 in 1:30, back-to-back first-round demolitions on the biggest cards of the year. A second-degree BJJ black belt, the guy started training at five years old because his father ran a jiu-jitsu gym at home, so the foundation runs deep.
The Sphere appearance at UFC 306 in September 2024, the second annual Noche UFC, held on Mexican Independence Day weekend, was essentially Lopes’ national coming-out party. He dominated Brian Ortega over three rounds inside one of the most visually striking venues in sports history, landing a knockdown in the first before winning a unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27) and announcing to the featherweight division that he was ready for a title shot.
Then, in June 2026, Lopes opened the UFC’s most historically unusual event, UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House, by knocking out Steve Garcia in the second round. A left hook hurt Garcia, Lopes followed with a right hand flush on the jaw, and referee Mike Beltran waved it off at 2:42. He told Joe Rogan afterward that it felt “unbelievable,” then offered to come back for the main event if they needed him. The man just cannot help himself.
Cain Velasquez
Cain Velasquez is the original Mexican flag bearer of the UFC heavyweight division, and the template that made Mexican fighting fans fall in love with the sport at 265 pounds. The son of Mexican migrant workers from Salinas, California, Velasquez became a two-time UFC heavyweight champion and the first Mexican-American to hold gold in any major contact sport.
He stopped Brock Lesnar in the first round at UFC 121 to claim his first title, then lost it to Junior dos Santos before going on a dominant run that included back-to-back wins over dos Santos and a defense against Antonio Silva. His wrestling base from Arizona State University gave him the kind of pressure and cage control that made him virtually impossible to stop at his peak.
England’s Lineup
Michael Bisping “The Count”
Michael Bisping is the greatest British MMA fighter of all time. The Manchester-raised middleweight went 20-9 in the UFC across 29 fights, headlined cards in seven different countries, more than any fighter in UFC history, and on 14 days’ notice knocked out Luke Rockhold at UFC 199 in 2016 to become the first British champion in UFC history. He was 37 years old when he did it.
His 1,567 significant strikes landed in the UFC were the most in company history at the time of his retirement. Bisping won The Ultimate Fighter Season 3 in 2006, first competed at 15 years old in Britain’s original “no holds barred” events, and trained as a pro kickboxer before transitioning to MMA. He was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2019 and currently co-hosts the Believe You Me podcast and works as an analyst.
Leon Edwards “Rocky”
Leon Edwards was born in Kingston, Jamaica, grew up in Aston, Birmingham after his father was murdered when he was 14, got pulled into gang culture, and then had his mother march him into a local MMA gym to keep him off the streets. It worked, he became UFC welterweight champion. His head kick knockout of Kamaru Usman in round five of their rematch at UFC 278 is one of the most dramatic finishes in UFC welterweight history, and ESPN’s Knockout of the Year for 2022.
He defended the title against Usman via majority decision at UFC 286 in London, and his 12-fight unbeaten streak in the UFC welterweight division is tied with Georges St-Pierre for the second longest in the division’s history. His record sits at 21-3-1 NC, and he trained out of UTC Gym in Erdington, Birmingham, refusing to relocate to the United States even at the peak of his career. The second British UFC champion in history.
Tom Aspinall
Tom Aspinall is the current undisputed UFC heavyweight champion, after Jon Jones officially retired in June 2025 and Aspinall was elevated from interim champion. The Salford-born heavyweight held the interim title for 535 days, the longest interim title reign in UFC history, before that promotion came through. His record is 15-3-0 with 12 knockout wins and 14 first-round finishes, including his interim title victories over Sergei Pavlovich (69 seconds) and Curtis Blaydes (60 seconds). He finished Alexander Volkov with an armbar in just over three minutes, submitted Andrei Arlovski, and stopped Marcin Tybura in 1:13, in short, the man does not stay in fights long.
He got into the sport through his father, trained at Team Kaobon in Atherton, and stands 6’5″ with a 78″ reach. At 33 years old, he is the most complete heavyweight England has ever produced.
Paddy Pimblett “The Baddy”
Paddy Pimblett walked into the UFC in September 2021 from Liverpool carrying the energy of a man who had already been famous for years, because he had been, as former Cage Warriors featherweight champion. The lightweight has a professional record of 23-4-0 with seven knockout wins and ten submission victories, and has knocked out or submitted his way through most of the UFC roster. He stopped Michael Chandler at UFC 314 in April 2025 and was submitted King Green via triangle choke at UFC 304, putting him on a nine-fight win streak before losing to Justin Gaethje at UFC 324 in January 2026.
A second-degree BJJ black belt who trains at Next Generation MMA Liverpool, “The Baddy” is one of the most popular fighters in the promotion globally. His next fight at UFC 329 is already booked against Benoit Saint-Denis in July 2026.
Dan Hardy “The Outlaw”
Dan Hardy from Nottingham is the wildcard on this list, but he earned his seat. The welterweight fought Georges St-Pierre for the UFC welterweight title at UFC 111 in 2010 and survived every submission attempt GSP threw at him for five rounds, including a locked-in armbar that should have ended the fight by any reasonable standard. Hardy is 25-10-0 overall, with a UFC debut in 2008, and put together a run in the division that included wins over Carlos Condit and Marcus Davis.
After a battle with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a cardiac condition that forced him into a four-year layoff, he returned to compete at UFC Fight Night in 2012 before ultimately retiring. Hardy built a second career as one of the most respected MMA analysts and commentators in the business, a role he holds with the PFL for years, and remains a prominent voice in the sport.
Ten fighters, two countries, zero weight class alignment, and absolutely no way to call a definitive winner, which is exactly what makes this fun. Mexico sends a flyweight world champion, an interim featherweight champion, the first Latin American women’s UFC titleholder, a Brazilian who chose Mexico so hard he opened a gym there, and a two-time heavyweight champion who made the Mexican flag mean something in the octagon. England counters with the first British UFC champion, a former welterweight world champion who headkicked his way into history, the current undisputed heavyweight king, Liverpool’s most charismatic export, and a cardiac-condition-surviving welterweight who once nearly tapped to an armbar and refused to quit against the greatest welterweight of all time.
On paper, England’s depth at the top is hard to argue with, Bisping, Edwards, and Aspinall are all genuine world title holders, and Aspinall right now sits at the top of the sport’s biggest division. But Mexico‘s ceiling with Moreno and Rodriguez is equally legitimate, and the Grasso chapter alone rewrote what was possible for Mexican fighters in the UFC. The truth is both squads would fill any card on the planet, and any promoter would write a large check to book either side.
