Anthony Hernandez is not treating Saturday like a cute hometown lap. The UFC middleweight contender is back in the UFC Sacramento main event against Gregory Rodrigues on Aug. 22, and after getting stopped by Sean Strickland earlier this year, he sounds like a man who spent the summer ripping parts off the machine and rebuilding it with angrier tools.
That matters because this is not some soft reset fight. Hernandez is trying to keep himself in the real middleweight conversation, and MiddleEasy already tracked how he tied this week to both his 50 clean UFC anti-doping tests and a blunt title-run message. Now the sharper piece is what happened after the Strickland loss, because Hernandez did not run from that beatdown. He walked toward the guy who gave it to him.
Watch Hernandez’s interview below:
Asked what he took from the Strickland fight in Houston, Hernandez kept it painfully simple.
“Don’t lose. Nah, yeah, no, I had to make some adjustments here, you know what I mean? But, yeah, sh*t happens,” Hernandez said.
Then he got to the part that actually explains the last few months. Hernandez said he needed to “train with better guys,” sharpen things up, and stop making the kind of choices that get punished when the other guy is a championship-level problem. He also made it clear he is done living inside that loss.
“Train with better guys, sharpen some sh*t up, and then make sure that I’m not doing dumb sh*t, man,” Hernandez said.
“A lot, you know what I mean? But, yeah, no, I’m good, man. It is what it is. I really don’t give a f*ck to talk about that fight, man. I’m not going to lie. I’m taking a bunch of edibles already, and a bunch of people already pissed me off. So I’m like 100 milligrams deep. If I forget your questions, I’m sorry, but I really don’t give a f*ck about the past. I’m focused on Gregory Rodrigues right now, and that’s all I can think about.”
Hernandez Turned The Strickland Loss Into A Vegas Grind
The funny part is that Strickland went from being the guy who derailed him to being part of the repair job. Hernandez spent a chunk of camp in Las Vegas at Xtreme Couture, working around Strickland and a room full of hungry killers. That is either emotionally mature or mildly unhinged. In MMA, it is usually both.
Hernandez said the move freshened up his relationship with the sport after years of living the same Sacramento routine. He called the experience “a f*cking blast” and said it “kind of re-sparked that [love for] martial arts” after a long run in the grind.
“It was great, man. It was a f*cking blast. Like I said in the last couple of interviews, it kind of re-sparked that martial arts for me, you know what I mean? I’ve been doing this sh*t for a long time. And to be honest, I was kind of getting sick of Sacramento anyways, so going out there was f*cking exciting. It was new, it was fun,” Hernandez said.
“A lot of the guys I fought, and there’s a lot of new guys there, so it’s just like a lot of hungry guys. And they’ll take your head off if you f*cking let them. So for me, it was about jumping in the fire and f*cking having to sharpen all my tools with guys with multiple layers, you know what I mean? And it was a f*cking great outcome for me. I had a great camp. Being at the PI was f*cking amazing, having everyone there, Charles and Hannah with the meal preps. Overall, I just made everything about fighting. I left home all summer. My wife, thank God for her and the grandparents, because they’ve been holding it down for me while I’m able to chase this dream and go out there and take full advantage.”
Hernandez said that support system allowed him to make the camp entirely about fighting without losing sight of why he has chased the sport since he was 15.
“The family’s good, man. My wife, my father-in-law, my mother-in-law are f*cking fantastic. My mom has been fantastic. My mom’s boyfriend, Jose, has been fantastic. If there’s ever any help I need, I’ve got so many people in this area that I trust with my f*cking soul that can help out. It’s an absolute f*cking blessing. Everyone knows that I’ve been chasing this same f*cking dream, the same f*cking thing, since I was a 15-year-old kid. I’ve been broke my entire f*cking life until I got here. I’m barely starting to sniff something.”
“I’m very blessed that my wife is all in, and she knows what it takes to be the best martial artist in the world, and she stands by that. It’s not like I’m out f*cking off and doing dumb sh*t. My general goal in life is to take care of my kids and send them to a better college and to do good sh*t in life. I want them to have more than I ever f*cking had as a kid growing up. The fact that my kids don’t have to work and go do side jobs is a win for me already.”
Asked when he last had this level of uninterrupted focus, Hernandez went back to his teenage years and the run that carried him into the UFC.
“Bro, probably when I was 18. My parents were divorced. I lived with my dad, and the only job I had was fight and hurt people. I went 11-1, was ranked number one in the world as an amateur as a kid. Then I went pro and went 7-0, made it to the UFC, you know what I mean? But there was a lot of chaos in there, and I had kids. Since I was young, there hasn’t been a time that I’ve been able to just get away and focus. I think that alone is going to be great for me, just because I’ve been living by the sword, dying by the sword.”
That is the right kind of miserable before a fight like this. Rodrigues is not a tidy assignment. “Robocop” brings heavy offense, weird durability, and enough chaos to turn clean plans into bar-room furniture by the second exchange. Hernandez knows that, and the UFC knows it too, which is why this matchup sits on top of the promotion’s return to Golden 1 Center.
Hernandez said Rodrigues called him out, and he accepted the danger without dismissing the Brazilian’s ability.
“I knew who he was, and he called me out. So it’s like, if you think you can take me out, perfect, let’s f*cking do it. I know he’s dangerous. I’m not sleeping on him. I know he’s a really cool guy. I’ve met him and talked to him for like an hour before. But at the end of the day, this guy’s got to take care of his family and so do I, so let’s f*cking get it. See who the most violent man could be.”
The stakes are also cleaner than they look. Hernandez was rolling before Strickland stopped him, with wins over names like Roman Dolidze, Roman Kopylov, Michel Pereira, and Brendan Allen. Rodrigues gives him a chance to prove the Strickland setback was a correction, not a collapse. That is a nasty little difference at middleweight, where one ugly night can shove a contender into traffic fast.
Hernandez said his focus now is entirely on the Rodrigues assignment and the work required for Saturday’s main event.
“I’ll tell you what, I’m focused as f*ck. I’ve been working my f*cking ass off. I’ve been chasing this f*cking dream. I’ve done everything it takes. So now it’s just go out there and have fun and fight. The rest will handle itself. We’ll see where the world takes us after Saturday.”
Hernandez confirmed the Las Vegas move was not a one-camp experiment. His usual coaches will remain in his corner, but he plans to return to Xtreme Couture for future camps.
“It’s my same guys, man. Same team, same dream. For sure, I’m going to go out there for camps. Like I said, there’s plenty of guys that helped me out this camp that I owe retribution to. I’m going to be back out there soon, just f*cking sharpening tools again.”
His prediction centered on keeping his composure while bringing the full set of tools he sharpened in Las Vegas.
“I really don’t ever look into it that much or think about that much sh*t. I think it’s going to be a f*cking war. I think I’m going to bring all my best tools to the table, and if I do that and stay level-headed, I think I’ll be victorious.”
MiddleEasy has already followed the build from the official UFC Sacramento card announcement through the late-camp headlines. Now Hernandez gets the useful kind of pressure. Hometown crowd, dangerous opponent, recent loss still warm, and a summer spent in Strickland’s gym turning bad tape into sharper weapons. If he beats Rodrigues, the middleweight pack has to deal with him again. If he does not, Sacramento gets a very loud reminder that this sport does not care how good your camp sounded on Thursday.
