Anthony Hernandez used UFC Sacramento fight week to frame his middleweight push around a simple point: he wants the belt without shortcuts.
Hernandez received recognition for 50 clean tests under the UFC anti-doping program during media day before his main event against Gregory Rodrigues. The matchup changed when Hernandez replaced Sean Strickland in the UFC Sacramento headliner, and this week he tied that spotlight to his clean-testing milestone.
“I really don’t care where it goes. I’m ready everywhere.”
The question that produced the strongest answer came after Hernandez was asked about the most inconvenient place he had been located by drug-testing officials. Hernandez said the process can be awkward, but not impossible.
“When I’m heading to go dirt biking was probably the most inconvenient place,” Hernandez said. “But it always works out, because they’re amazing, they call me, and we always make it happen.”
Hernandez Links Clean Tests To His Title Goal
Hernandez is 15-3 with one no contest and enters the Rodrigues fight on a strong UFC run. He said the actual standard is not complicated if fighters follow the program.
“As long as you follow the UFC’s program, it’s pretty f*cking hard to fail. Unless you’re like a b*tch, and you’re like ‘I need steroids.’ Then it is what it is.”
The bigger line was about what he wants his career to prove if he keeps moving toward the top of the division.
“I carry myself on not cheating and doing that sh*t. I want to be the best in the world with no enhanced drugs, no nothing,” Hernandez said. “The goal is obviously the championship. I just want to be able to show people, I’m from a small town of like 700, I just want to show everyone that if you need to get the f*ck out, you can, you just got to put your head down and go.”
Rodrigues gives Hernandez a heavy-handed opponent in a five-round setting. The finalized Sacramento lineup put Hernandez vs. Rodrigues on top of the Aug. 22 card, and the main event now carries a cleaner bit of personal stakes for Hernandez than another rankings move.
Hernandez also said training with Strickland has sharpened him for the assignment, a detail that matters because Strickland’s shoulder issue kept him out of his next targeted fight window. Hernandez is now trying to turn that late shuffle into a title-relevant performance without changing the way he talks about his own process.
For Hernandez, the jacket was not just a media-day prop. It was the clearest public marker of the standard he says he wants attached to the rest of his climb.
