10 UFC fighters from countries you've probably never heard of
By Amy Kaplan
The UFC plays host to more than 600 fighters from around the world. Most of the fighters hail from countries like the United States, Brazil, Russia, and China, but many other fighters represent some of the lesser-known countries in the world.
As of press time, there are 195 countries in the world and we'd be hard-pressed to find an MMA fan would could list them all from memory (we sure can't).
While some of the countries on this list might be recognizable to MMA fans thanks to the fighters who represent them, the average person might not know where it is. And if there hadn't been a fighter from there, we might not have known either.
This list includes 10 countries you may not know about ... yet.
Charalampos Grigoriou, Cyprus
Charalampos Grigoriou became just the second UFC fighter from the country of Cyprus when he defeated Cameron Smotherman and earned a UFC contract on DWCS in just one minute. Costas Philippou was the first.
Grigoriou spoke about the pressure of representing the small country ahead of his fight while talking to Cageside Press.
"Everybody was really happy when I got the call, and they’re expecting a lot from me because i’m the only one from Cyprus now (fighting in the UFC). I have a lot of support from Cyprus and Greece and when I announced the fight everyone was going crazy, the support was a lot," he said. “And that’s why I have to go there and take care of business because of my people, because they believe in me and they support me so i’m going to go there, finish the fight and sign with the UFC.”
Cyprus is an Island in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and is considered Western Asia but culturally is more of a European ideal. As of 2021, the population of the country was 1.244 million, which is about double the population of Las Vegas, NV.