Diana Belbita devoted more than half of her life to combat sports. From the tender age of 12, she was involved in judo prior to moving onto the disciplines of kickboxing and karate. On April 5 of this year, Belbita trekked down to Enterprise, NV and the UFC Apex facility for UFC Vegas 105.
Diana Belbita’s contest that spring Saturday evening would eventually prove to be her final one. With Belbita recently deciding to put down the gloves for good at just 28 years old, it’s now time for us to take a trip down memory lane and give the one nicknamed “The Warrior Princess” her props.
Diana Belbita’s Gold Medal Success Leads to an MMA Career
Upon capturing the 2012 World Association of Kickboxing Organizations’ (WAKO) World Cup gold medal, the then 16-year-old Belbita found herself hampered by minimum age requirements to compete in MMA. At the time in Romania, fighters could be no younger than 18 years old before turning to the sport.
In the interim, she turned her attention to karate, where Belbita scored her second career gold medal in her native Romania in Budokai a year later. All told, by the end of her career in combat sports, Diana Belbita won five gold medals, including three medals in Kempo.
Upon turning 18, her MMA career began. Right from the jump, Belbita proved herself to be a force to be reckoned with. During her first year in MMA, she won four fights in seven months’ time, including two wins in a matter of a few short days.
All four of her early wins were recorded inside the distance, with Belbita scoring a second-round armbar submission over Alice Ardelean in November of 2014.
Diana Belbita Goes the Distance in Fifth Bout, Suffers First Losing Skid Afterward
While she competed at 135 lbs in her earliest fights, her fourth appearance in MMA saw Diana Belbita move down to flyweight. That short-notice bout saw her score the second knockout of her career before jumping back up to bantamweight.
She entered uncharted territory in appearance number five, with the judges’ scorecards factoring into the outcome for the first time in her career. This proved irrelevant, however, as she got her hand raised in victory (unanimous decision) to run her record to 5-0.
After, she found herself on the losing end of two fights in a row, including a first-round armbar defeat to Cristina Stanciu for the Real Xtreme Fighting Women’s Bantamweight Championship. Promotional titles were something that forever eluded Diana Belbita, who went 0-3 in her career during such fights.
Impressive Stretch Leads to UFC Call-Up For Belbita
Upon that defeat, Belbita returned to RXF in March of 2016, going 2-0 before trying her luck in KSW from October of that year to May of 2017. After another championship setback, she rattled off victories in four of her next five contests.
Having gone 8-2 over a 10-fight period, Diana Belbita found herself as the newest member of the UFC’s active roster ahead of a bout in October of 2019 against Molly McCann. That night, the now-retired McCann bested Belbita via unanimous decision (30-25, 30-25, 30-25) in Boston, a fight that saw her lose a point on the scorecards for grabbing the fence of the Octagon.
Diana Belbita had a rough go of things during her UFC tenure. She had eight fights in the promotion, winning only two of them, dropping down to 115 lbs for her victory against Hannah Goldy in July of 2021 at the UFC Apex facility in Enterprise.
Diana Belbita Nearly Retired Before Rematch vs. McCann and Three-Fight Losing Streak to End Career
The twilight of her MMA life was a challenging stretch, dropping three consecutive bouts before her retirement from the sport. Back in 2024, Diana Belbita squared off against Molly McCann a second time, a fight that almost didn’t happen.
“First of all, I have to admit that after I fought Karolina [Kowalkiewicz], I considered myself being done fighting, stepping down and that’s it,” Diana Belbita began in her pre-fight media availability. Sometimes we don’t feel to do it. That’s okay. I just wanted to find another way in life and I was ready for that.”
The second fight against Molly McCann didn’t go Diana Belbita’s way, either, getting stopped with a first-round armbar with one second remaining on the clock. This was the second in a three-fight losing streak to wrap up her tenure in the UFC and MMA as a whole.
In April of 2025, Belbita was submitted with an arm-triangle choke from Dione Barboza. Three days later, she took to her social media channels to announce that she was ready to embrace the next phase in her life.
She finished her MMA career at 15-10 with a 2-6 record in Dana White‘s promotion.
