Some fans were less than accepting of Jeff Molina’s decision to don rainbow-colored Pride Month gear for his latest fight. That didn’t sit well with Molina, who fired back after his UFC Vegas 56 win.
June is Pride Month, an annual celebration of all things LGBTQ that has been running since the 1970s and has since grown into a pretty massive worldwide affair. Even Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has gotten in on supporting Pride, giving its athletes the option of competing in Venum gear with rainbow lettering.
Jeff Molina was the first fighter to compete with the rainbow Pride shorts, and he was pretty proud to show them off. He wasn’t so proud of the mixed martial arts (MMA) community and how some reacted, though. Following his questionable split decision win over Zhalgas Zhumagulov at UFC Vegas 56 (full results here), Molina spoke to the press about the not-so great responses from the online community.
“I was honestly shocked,” Molina said at the post-fight press conference. “I picked the colors because I thought it looked cool and then also it supports a good cause, you know. But, I will support anything of a community that’s been oppressed and ostracized for some time now for something they can’t help. I’ll get behind any of that.
“It wasn’t that long ago that there was school segregation, and that was like less than a person ago, something like Stonewall, that was like 50 years ago,” he continued. “That’s not even a whole person ago, man. This is recent s—t.
Pretty sick the @ufc is letting us rep for pride month!! Get your pride gear @ufcstore ?? pic.twitter.com/nEbJZSuLWr
— Jeff Molina (@jmolina_125) June 1, 2022
“I just thought in 2022 people will be a little more like open-minded and not pieces of s—t,” he added. “But, I guess I was wrong. It’s just crazy to me. Like, people were saying some, like crazy s—t, and like, dude, what would you do if your kid’s gay? Mind your own business, it doesn’t concern you. Get f—ked.
“Dude, it’s f—king ridiculous,” Molina continued. “Man, who would have thunk that in 2022 people are still … who the f—k cares, bro? Like honestly, it’s not even about being an ally. I’m not saying I’m not, but it’s like just be a f—king decent person. Like just be a decent human being.
“Judging someone and trying to justify with religion and saying all sorts of like just spiteful, hateful s—t, it’s crazy, it’s crazy to me,” he said. “It’s mind-boggling. It’s like who cares who someone wants to be with or like their sexual preference like and then trying to justify, the irony of trying to justify it by religion or something that’s supposed to be so accepting.”
On the fight side, Molina found himself in another sort of controversy when he won a split decision over Zhalgas Zhumagulov, just the latest UFC fight where many fans disagreed with the judges’ scorecards. According to MMA Decisions, 12 of the 13 media members watching the fight scored it for Zhumagulov. Molina had a simple response to the doubters.
“Not the performance I wanted, but got er’ done!” he wrote on Twitter. “Damage is the main criteria in scoring — I came to fight and he came to hold me.”
Not the performance I wanted but got er’ done! Damage is the main criteria in scoring- I came to fight and he came to hold me. Best believe I’ll get better from this. Best is yet to come
Much love to all the Twitter fam and supporters ?? https://t.co/xnpNEoT6E1
— Jeff Molina (@jmolina_125) June 4, 2022
Not that Molina wasn’t doubting the outcome of the fight in the moment. He also posted up a funny video showing his reaction to the split decision.
Morning pic.twitter.com/DNp3Fu3SP9
— Jeff Molina (@jmolina_125) June 5, 2022
For complete UFC Vegas 56 results and coverage click here.