Mara Romero Borella became the first Italian woman to compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship at UFC 216 on Oct. 7. She won the first women’s flyweight match in the promotion’s history by submitting Kalindra Faria with a rear-naked choke at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
With the appearance, Borella joined Alessio Sakara, Marvin Vettori and Alessio Di Chirico on the short list of Italian mixed martial artists who have set foot inside the Octagon. The daughter of a Honduran mother and Italian father, she likes to say she has the heart of an Italian and the blood of a Honduran.