The fight between Jeremy Stephens and Yair Rodriguez apparently didn’t end inside the octagon.
The main event of UFC Fight Night Mexico City ended in a no contest due to an accidental eye poke from Rodriguez to Stephens. Since then, Stephens has come under fire from some in the MMA community including Rodriguez himself, with many questioning whether the 33-year-old’s injury was legit or not.
The featherweight fighters came into contact in a hotel after the event, with the situation getting heated between Stephens and Rodriguez who had to be kept apart by family and security as the two argued back and forth. Stephens detailed the confrontation on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show (transcript courtesy of
fightful.com):
“We were taking off, and he comes up all cordial giving like a thumbs up like, ‘Hey is everything OK?’ He comes up and shakes my hand. I thought he was trying to be a gentleman,”
“He starts talking s—t to me. I’m like, ‘Bro I’m not from karate school. I’m from the street. I’m here to compete. I’m here to fight. I’m here to kill you.’ So right away my mentality was ‘back the f—k up,’ so I shoved him. And his coaches, his dad, his parents and everybody are like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa.’ I know his sister has footage. I was waiting for them to release that footage, but I guarantee they’re not gonna release it because he looked like a coward there. I thought he was trying to be a gentleman, but unfortunately that wasn’t it. He wants to talk…I don’t know Yair. He doesn’t know me. But I’m not like that. I’m not gonna [let] you talk s—t to me, especially after you eye poked me.”
The footage on the confrontation between the two fighters was eventually released via IndiscutidoLA and it’s not clear what Rodriquez says to Stephens before the Iowa native shoves the featherweight; however, there loud exchange afterwards can be heard perfectly:
Speaking with
ESPN.com, Rodriguez stated that he’d like to see evidence that Stephens suffered a legitimate eye injury and guarantees to apologize if he’s proven wrong.