Gregory Rodrigues believes he beat Anthony Hernandez fair and square at UFC Sacramento.
This past Saturday, the premier MMA promotion returned to California for UFC Sacramento, headlined by Anthony Hernandez vs. Gregory Rodrigues.
The middleweight fight won the Fight of the Night bonus as the Brazilian contender scored the impressive unanimous decision win to climb up the rankings.
Despite that, following the fight, Rodrigues was accused of ‘cheating’ by ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez.
Rodrigues shuts down Hernandez’s cheating claims
Throughout their gruelling five round fight, Rodrigues did most of his best work by landing huge leg kicks, which dropped Hernandez several times.
‘Fluffy’ on the other hand did some nice work with some elbow attacks, but he feels he was prevented from doing more, accusing Rodrigues of holding the inside of his gloves.
“He can say whatever he wants,” Rodrigues responded during an appearance on the Ariel Helwani Show.
“The fact is that I beat him with leg kicks, I punched him, he didn’t take me down, he didn’t do anything, he put on pressure and that was good but I didn’t cheat and he knows that.
“Everyone can say whatever they want, I’m still the same man, I give a lot of respect to him and I saw his family when I was there, his son was crying in the front row, it’s crazy but that’s the sport.
“If anything was clear, Herb Dean would’ve said something or everyone would’ve saw it on (the broadcast). Sometimes involuntary, my hands grab his gloves but it was nothing like (cheating) or anything that would change the result of the fight,” Rodrigues continued.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
However, that isn’t the only thing the Brazilian was accused of doing in his main event fight in Sacramento.
Fans pointed out that the 34-year-old landed several elbows to the back of Hernandez’s head, with fans once again going at Herb Dean for not punishing it.
This year alone, the veteran referee has received countless criticism for his lack of authority in the cage, with Alex Pereira having launched an attack on him earlier this year for his part in his Freedom 250 loss.
That has led to Dean being booed by fans all around the United States whenever the promotion goes on the road.
2026-08-25 13:00:00
