History made at UFC 219 – First married couple in the UFC
When Mark De La Rosa stepped inside the octagon tonight at UFC 219 against Tim Elliott, it marked the first time in the history of the UFC that a husband and wife married couple have both competed for the organization.
While there have been boyfriend and girlfriend couples (example Bryan Caraway and Miesha Tate), and lesbian couples, that have both competed inside the UFC octagon, there has never been a heterosexual married couple that has seen each sex compete at the highest stage of mixed martial arts.
De La Rosa’s wife, Montana De La Rosa recently competed and won on the Ultimate Fighter Season 26 Finale. Formerly known as Montana Stewart while the show aired, the couple later married, and when the Finale took place December 1, her name had already changed.
“Mark had proposed about a year ago and when I got out of The Ultimate Fighter house and got back home, it just seemed like the time was right. We have a friend who’s a judge who made it official,” Montana told MMA Fighting.
Montana scored a first round submission win over Christina Marks and moved her pro MMA record to 8-4. Her last two losses were to Cynthia Calvillo who competes later tonight at UFC 219, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace Mackenzie Dern.
Mark kicked off the UFC 219 fight card against Elliott, putting his perfect undefeated 9-0 record on the line. Although De La Rosa gave Elliott trouble early on with an armbar attempt, the UFC Veteran survived and was able to turn the tide. In the second round Elliott submitted De La Rosa via anaconda choke.
Tonight’s fight was the first inside the UFC octagon for Mark, and he took on a former flyweight title challenger. No shame in the loss.
