Michelle Montague’s rise through the UFC ranks continues.

Next week, the Florida-based Kiwi will find herself inside the top 15 of the women’s bantamweight division after a unanimous decision win over No 12-ranked Mayra Bueno Silva in Las Vegas, the United States.

With a background in rugby and wrestling, the 32-year-old from Matamata showed her physical advantages against her Brazilian opponent from the outset and she wrangled Bueno Silva to the canvas within the first 20 seconds of the fight.

That allowed Montague to control the entire first round, using her strength to stay in a dominant position, drop elbows and punches on her opponent and take what Bueno Silva was giving her to work with.

Bueno Silva, who fought for the UFC title in 2024, defended positions well to prevent any opportunity for Montague to look for a submission attempt, but the Kiwi ended the round in control.

She faced a little bit more adversity in the second round as Bueno Silva was able to keep things at distance for about half of it.

While Montague was landing punches at will, Bueno Silva was answering back with shots that appeared to have a bit more venom on them. A couple of times it looked as though Montague was feeling the strikes as she smiled at Bueno Silva in response.

However, Bueno Silva made the mistake of trying to initiate her own grappling sequence and took the bout to the canvas.

Speaking to the Herald earlier in the week, Montague said she hoped Bueno Silva tried to grab her neck, and it was clear why as the Kiwi had no trouble turning the position and get top control to end the round in a dominant position.

It was a close round and, back in her corner, Montague’s coaching team made it clear that the round could have gone either way and she needed to win the third.

That proved little problem as Montague was able to get a takedown within 30s of the final round starting and, in similar fashion to the first round, batter Bueno Silva with strikes.

The Brazilian was able to reverse position briefly, but Montague recovered to close out the biggest win of her professional career to date.

Two of the judges scored the bout 29-28, or two rounds to one, in Montague’s favour – giving the second round to Bueno Silva – with the other scoring all three rounds for the Kiwi.

That sees the New Zealander move to 8-0 as a professional, while handing Bueno Silva – a former teammate at American Top Team in Florida – a fifth loss in a row.

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.