{"id":617206,"date":"2026-04-19T13:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T13:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/617206\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T13:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T13:56:13","slug":"ufc-star-explains-why-cartel-members-protected-him-while-in-mexican-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/617206\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC star explains why cartel members protected him while in Mexican prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

UFC star Daniel Rodriguez has revealed why he was protected by cartel members while serving time in a Mexican prison just weeks after his release.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez \u2013 known as D-Rod by fans \u2013 effectively disappeared after his last bout against Kevin Holland at UFC 318 back in July 2025, with many questioning the reason for his radio silence.<\/p>\n

However, earlier this month, the 39-year-old Californian finally broke his silence<\/a>, posting a clip of himself to his Instagram Story accompanied by the caption: \u201cRelease day.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was his first post in over eight months, which was rather unexpected given that he is currently on a three-fight win streak, having defeated Alex Morono, Santiago Ponzinibbio and Holland between October 2024 and July 2025.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Ariel Helwani<\/a> earlier this week, the veteran explained how he went on holiday in Mexico and \u201cforgot\u201d he was carrying a small amount of cannabis.<\/p>\n

\"DanielDaniel Rodriguez beat Kevin Holland last time out (Credit:Getty)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was under an ounce, and I got pulled over at the line and checked \u2014 the border patrol were tripping on the weed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On Sunday (April 19), the UFC<\/a> star finally opened up about his experience in a Mexican prison, revealing that he was protected by high-ranking members of the cartel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in jail before. It\u2019s not my first rodeo, but this was a whole different monster,\u201d he told TMZ<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSurrounded by the lowest of the low. You can imagine jail, then you can imagine jail in Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodriguez then explained how he \u201cgot a lot of love\u201d in jail due to his reputation in the UFC, before suggesting that he\u2019s already been offered a comeback fight against former welterweight champion Leon Edwards in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did get a lot of love in there, but it is jail, and it is Mexico,\u201d Rodriguez continued. \u201cIt was a crazy experience. Luckily, nothing happened. I was in the right crowd of people where nobody f***ed with me, nobody messed with me, and I didn\u2019t have to beat anybody\u2019s ass or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American added: \u201cI got an amazing offer. You guys will probably be seeing me in there with Leon Edwards, International Fight Week, sometime around July.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been thinking about it, made the decision right now. I\u2019m accepting the offer for Leon Edwards, International Fight Week. Let\u2019s go!\u201d<\/p>\n

International Fight Week is scheduled to take place between July 9 and 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC star Daniel Rodriguez has revealed why he was protected by cartel members while serving time in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,95270,785,85,787],"class_list":{"0":"post-617206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-leon-edwards","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}