Before she parted ways with the UFC, Nicco Montano agreed to be a part of a documentary that does not paint the promotion in the best light. However now she reveals some shady things that occurred around this film, all without her consent.
Montano will forever go down in history as the first ever flyweight champion in UFC history, after winning The Ultimate Fighter to earn that crown in 2017. One USADA suspension, some botched weight cutting, four years and a single fight later, and she was stripped of that title shortly after winning it, and eventually released from the promotion earlier this year.
Before that happened though, the first ever Native American champ in UFC history had signed on to be a part of a documentary. The film, titled Warrior Spirit details the struggles of a fighter, and paints the UFC in a bit of a bad light for apparently exploring its athletes.
Nicco Montano Was Exposed
This film came out, and almost immediately Nicco Montano experienced some serious blow back. She spoke on this in an interview with SiriusXM, explaining that the content of the film was unknown to her, as her then-lawyer and producer of the film did not allow her to watch it beforehand, out of supposed fear of her showing UFC officials.
Then when the film came out, Nicco says they included a scene that exposed her, seemingly showing more of her body than she was interested in displaying. She got blowback from her friends and family who had seen the film, all the while she did not get to sign off on her role in the project.
“When I confronted my producer, who was also my lawyer at the time, when I asked him why is this scene in the show? I’m getting all kinds of hate and I still haven’t been able to watch the link, because you’re still scared I’m going to show the UFC something even though I was at the tail end of working with the UFC,” Montano said.
“So I didn’t want to be involved in the film because I knew it was taking that route because they were secretive about it. Then the UFC’s like ‘Well, this documentary is coming out, anti-UFC, do you know about it? It has your name all over it.’ I’m like ‘I have no idea, I haven’t been able to see it. I’ve been trying to ask them for a link, they’re not sending it to me.
“So when the film came out, and everybody was like ‘Why are you doing this, why are you exposing yourself? We’re native, we’re a modest people. You shouldn’t have done this, now I’m really not your fan.’ I had no idea what was happening. I was never sent the link, and never said this is okay. Like if that part needed to be in the film, like I don’t even see why it needed to be in the film… they could’ve zoomed in, they could have taken me out,” Montano contniued.
“It’s funny, the film talks about the genocide of our people, right? We get exploited by the government. The UFC exploits their fighters. And now I’m not getting any reimbursement from this show, exposed for free, because I signed a contract that my lawyer did three years ago.”
“I was never sent the link. I never said this was okay.”
@niccomontano objects to a scene in #WarriorSpirit, a new doc focused on her weight cut struggles, where she was exposed without her consent.@ryanmckinnell @mieshatate⬇️EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW⬇️https://t.co/mBH0xVu7N2 pic.twitter.com/CBbgLwKt4b
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) November 9, 2021
This is a difficult situation for Nicco Montano to have to go through. That said, it is important to remember that every story has two sides to it, and we have not heard anyone else’s recount of the events.
