Flyweight Jeff Molina apparently got a ton of hate for sporting the UFC’s Pride Month themed shorts for his UFC Vegas 56 fight.
Flyweight fighter Jeff Molina was supposed to be enjoying his third win in the Octagon on Saturday at UFC Vegas 56. Instead, he was met with a ton of hateful comments. The reason? His decision to wear the UFC’s themed shorts in honor of Pride Month.
Jeff Molina goes *off* about the negative comments he received for wearing UFC’s pride month shorts.
“I just thought in 2022 people would be a little more open-minded and not pieces of sh*t. But I guess I was wrong.”#UFCVegas56 | Full video: https://t.co/mOxnqIFGCb pic.twitter.com/aKeVUUeXyg
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) June 5, 2022
Speaking to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour on Monday, the 24-year-old revealed some of the harsh things said to him.
“There were a couple of narratives in the comments like, ‘The UFC is just doing this to exploit, it’s a business tactic, they’re doing this for money, they don’t really care,” he said. “Blah blah blah.’ The other parts were, ‘Man, you support gay people, you’re gonna burn in Hell. Allah will make sure you burn in hell or God will make sure you burn in hell.’
“I’m telling you there were dozens and dozens of these, like, ‘You should get cut from the UFC for supporting f–ts.’ There (were) a lot of those.
“I looked over to the DMs, my DMs on Twitter were about split with the love and hate. From the love side it was a lot of guys like, ‘Hey man, I didn’t know you rolled that way. I think you’re cute.’ And then on the other side, it was more of the same hateful, spiteful things, and I felt like I just had to address it.”
“El Jefe,” says he did get some praise for taking the stand that he did, but for him, it should be common decency.
“What’s weird is I feel like I’m being appreciated for something I shouldn’t be appreciated for if that makes sense,” he said. “And I’m not trying to backtrack on anything I said, I spoke 100 percent from the heart. I meant exactly what I said.
“But it’s like being applauded for saying, ‘Murder is wrong.’ This should just be common: Rape is wrong. Racism is wrong. Being hateful towards someone for who they love is wrong. And who the f–k cares at the end of the day? That’s the only thing that makes me feel weird about this whole situation.
“I know I have a platform as a fighter, fighting for the UFC, for the biggest organization in the world. But at the same time, I feel weird being appreciated for something that should just be f–ng common decency. Just being a human being.”
Molina entered the UFC through Dana White’s Contender Series in 2021. He won Saturday’s fight against Zhalgas Zhumagulov via split decision to improve to a record of 11-2.