Hernandez earns bounce-back victory
Dunnigan native improves to 8-2 following victory over Rodolfo Vieira at UFC 258
Dunnigan native Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez needed a bounce-back victory in the worst possible way. He did just that, earning perhaps the biggest victory in his UFC career this past Saturday.
After suffering a first-round TKO to Kevin Holland in his previous fight back on May 16, the 6’0 186 pound fighter got back to his winning ways when he submitted jujitsu world champion, Rodolfo Vieira, at UFC 258.
“I learned some stuff,” Hernandez said. “I quit doing so much yard work before. I was just running my body down. This time I stayed away from that and put all of my time and energy into recovering and training like a real professional would, and I went out and killed it.”
Much to the surprise of bettors, the announcers, and possibly the jujitsu community, Hernandez was able to submit Vieira one minute and 53 seconds into the second round, taking his record to 8-2 in the UFC, with one no contest.
“I needed that win really bad, to be honest,” Hernandez said. “Later on, I found out seven people said no to this fight. On paper, it was just a very hard and
risky fight.”
Luckily for Hernandez, fights don’t play out on paper.
Hernandez came into the fight at 30-1 odds to end the match via submission. Vieira, who is a four-time Brazilian jujutsu World Champion and a seven-time World Cup Champion, came in with a heavy set of accolades and an undefeated mixed martial arts record.
Vieira was also an ADCC Submission Fighting World Championship gold medalist as recently as 2015 and had won six out of his seven MMA bouts via submission.
So, naturally, it was quite a surprise to many, except Hernandez and his supporters, when he ended the match via a guillotine choke, or as Hernadez dubbed it “Fluffy-tine choke” a minute and a half into the second round, earning himself a nice $50,000 bonus for “performance of the night.”
The victory marked only the second time an ADCC gold medalist had been submitted in a UFC match.
“I was super stoked, man,” Hernandez said. “It was a big ‘F-U’ to the jujutsu community who were all saying there was no way in hell I’d submit this guy because of his accomplishments. It worked out great for me. It’s MMA, not just jujitsu. It was a relief. All this hard work paid off.”
According to Hernandez, although it may have looked rocky initially, the first round all went according to plan.
Early in the first, Hernandez found himself in an unfavorable position before being slammed down to the floor by Vieira. While it may not have looked too great for those watching at home, Hernandez remained cool and stuck to the plan.
“I knew it wasn’t good (being lifted up), but I wasn’t really tripping,” a confident Hernandez explained. “The whole game plan for the first round was to make him work his ass off because he is going to gas out, and that’s exactly what we did.”
A heavily decorated jujitsu artist on top of you could understandably lead to some panic. But that would have just made things worse for Hernandez.
“You always got to stay calm during the chaos,” Hernandez said. “When you panic, you put yourself in worse positions. I’ve been in bad positions during practice, and you just have to relax and work your way through it, and you’ll usually come out on top.”
Come out on top is what he did. Once both fighters got back to their feet, Hernandez had the advantage.
“It’s a fight. Anything can happen,” Hernandez said. “I know it was going to be a hard first round, but if I stayed calm and kept at it, I’d get it. He didn’t want to be in that fight anymore.”
While it may not have been noticeable in the first round, Vieira was undoubtedly out of breath once the second round started.
“You could see it,” Hernandez said. “You can see his spirit just leave him when they are starting to break. Seeing him like that is popping a Viagra pill. You get so excited and go after it.”
With about 3:45 seconds left to go, Hernandez landed a vicious kick to Vieira’s face, but Vieira continued to endure the punishment.
“When I kicked him, it hurt. And he didn’t go down, so I was like, ‘this guy is tough,’” Hernandez recalled with a laugh. “I’m in such good shape I plan on beating on you the entire fight. So I don’t mind hitting people extra if I have to. My calf or shin is still sore, to be honest.”
Fifteen seconds later, Hernandez landed the second of two elbows to the face, splitting Vieira right above his left eye.
From there, Hernandez would keep landing blows until Vieira fell to the ground. With about 3:19 left to go, Hernandez positioned himself into a chokehold. Ten seconds later, Vieira tapped out.
“Once I knew for sure that I trapped his elbow, I was like I got him, it’s over,” Hernandez said. “So I just sat into it and started watching for his hand. That’s one of my best chokes. I love that one. It’s tight and hard to get out of it.”
Hernandez released his hold, looked to his corner, and mimicked an earlier hand gesture Vieira had signaled toward him during the fight’s weigh-in for some added revenge.
Up next for Hernandez will be to heal and rest up his hand, which he says he hurt sometime during the intense first round. He plans to fight sometime again within the next three months.