UFC fighter Daniel ‘D-Rod’ Rodriguez has just been released after being locked up in a Mexican prison for the past eight months and now he’s spoken out about how he got their, and how he managed to survive the ordeal.
“Pretty sure you all remember my last fight vs. Kevin Holland, it was an amazing matchup and I went on vacation to cross the border,” Rodriguez said on The Ariel Helwani Show. “I crossed the border to Mexico and I forgot I had a little bag of weed with me, it was under an ounce and I got pulled over at the line, got checked, and the border patrol were tripping on the weed. I was thinking I was only going to be in there probably the weekend, maybe a little bit shorter, but the laws over there in Mexico are way different. They don’t play no games.
“What I was thinking would turn into what was going to be a little weekend or maybe overnight turned into eight months. Smack in the prime of my career, that was it.”
The 39-year-old Rodriguez says once he got to the prison word quickly spread about who he was, and while he feared that might cause problems for him, it ended up working in his favor.
“My first court date, one of the guards recognized me and started asking me for pictures,” Rodriguez said. “I’m like, ‘What the hell?’ So all the guards are right there taking pictures. Some of the inmates saw that and one inmate asked, ‘What’s up with you?’ and this and that. I didn’t really want to say anything. In a situation like that, you want to keep the lowest profile, because me being who I am, it’s kind of like a target on my back. People are going to want to test you, you never know. So I was just wanting to keep a low profile.
“Once that happened, as soon as I hit the prison, and over there it’s not like out here. I’ve been in jail over here where there’s like the L.A. county jail, where it’s not ‘prison’ prison. But over there, they throw you straight in, it’s straight into prison and my first, like, 12 days there I was in a six-man cell with, like, 25 people in there. Dudes sleeping on the floor, two men per bunk, and I couldn’t even sleep. It was just disgusting in there, it’s horrible. The most horrible situation you can think of. Fortunately, word got around that I was in there and I got shot up to the VIP section, so I was fortunate enough to get some love. Yeah, they did show me a lot of love, in the back of my mind I kind of had a sense like, I think this guy’s using me as protection. I’m kind of like his bodyguard or some shit, but I just ran with it.”
Rodriguez holds a 20-5 career record and was on a three-fight winning streak prior to being arrested, having claimed wins over Alex Morono, Santiago Ponzinibbio and Kevin Holland.
As such, ‘D-Rod’ had been eager to continue to build momentum in the Octagon, but instead found himself struggling to maintain his fitness in prison as the months ticked by.
“This is my first time in Mexican jail and I can tell you one thing for sure, it’s the worst possible situation,” Rodriguez said. “Fortunately, I was able to make the best of it. I was able to pull a couple of strings and get a little bit of workout equipment there and I was able to work out and try and stay in shape, but it’s not the same. We only went to yard twice a week and those days were the only days I would get to run. I spent the whole time running, I probably looked like a crazy ass dude out there just running laps and laps and laps and laps, but it was only twice a week.
“I think the worst part about the whole thing was the food. I felt a little bit unhealthy, a little malnourished. I think that was the toughest part, is the nutrition. I was coming off that big fight and my body was healthy and the best shape ever, and then to be thrown and locked in a jail cell and just put in one spot and just getting the bare minimum food to eat, it was terrible.”
Now that he’s out, the No.14 ranked Rodriguez intends to take some time to get in shape and is then eager to land a big fight sometime in the summer.
“There’s some good offers,” Rodriguez said. “Kevin Holland tried to slide in my DMs yesterday and I’m not interested in that. I already beat him. I know he won yesterday, but I really want to shoot for the stars, I really want to take this to the highest level possible and we’re possibly looking at a matchup versus Leon Edwards. I think ideally a solid three months, I’ll be ready.”
