After beating Kevin Holland at UFC 318 in a barn burner, Daniel Rodriguez vanished from the public eye. For almost a year, fans wondered where the welterweight contender had gone, until it was made public that ‘D-Rod’ was facing jail time in Mexico for the past 8 months. What surprised fans even more was that Holland actually bailed out Rodriguez, paying the legal charges. The reason? The Texas native wants a rematch. Now, after getting out of jail, ‘D-Rod’ has released his first statement.
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Though Rodriguez is yet to disclose details of why he was arrested following his UFC 318 win, the Californian thanked his legal team, family, and friends for helping him during tough times. Also addressing his comeback, ‘D-Rod’ promised to show what “monster” the prison time has created.
“8 months in a cage in Tijuana Mexico never killed my spirit, I did everything possible to stay on point and ready for my return to the @ufc octagon, expect a hungrier more focused version of myself,” Daniel Rodriguez posted on Instagram. They tried to take it all away now it’s time for me to comeback and show you all the monster prison created.
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Thank you to legal and management team, family and real friends to help me be a free man today,” he added.
For those who don’t know, Daniel Rodriguez has a troubled past of getting involved with gang members. While growing up in the neighborhood of Los Angeles, the 39-year-old developed connections with a local gang and did everything to survive. Moreover, during an Ariel Helwani interview, ‘D-Rod’ revealed that he was in prison for a DUI offense before competing at Dana White’s Contender Series win.
So, as Daniel Rodriguez has finally come out of his recent jail time, we will soon know what went down behind his arrest. But since Kevin Holland has bailed ‘D-Rod’ out, he is aiming to settle the score from UFC 318, a fight Holland believes he won.
“Oh, 100%. 100%,” Holland said in a Full Send interview. “I mean, I went back and watched that fight. I don’t know how the f— I lost that, but, yeah. Run that back two or three more times. I don’t care. It was a fun fight, too. The fans had a blast. We had blood in the Octagon. We had knockdowns. We had all the good stuff.”
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Now, before Kevin Holland approaches the UFC for a rematch against Daniel Rodriguez in the future, he needs a win vs Randy Brown at UFC 327. What’s more, another UFC legend has also shared his thoughts after getting out of prison recently.
UFC legend Cain Velasquez shares first thoughts after getting released from prison
In February 2022, authorities jailed former UFC heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez and charged him with attempted first-degree murder for firing at Harry Goularte, who allegedly molested his son. The court originally sentenced Velasquez to five years in jail in March 2025, but officials granted him parole in February this year after awarding additional time off for “participating in rehabilitative programming.”
The entire MMA world rallied with “Free Cain” while the former champ spent his days in jail. So when he got out, Cain Velasquez was extremely emotional and filled with gratitude as he addressed the fans and people who supported him during rough times.
“Now that it’s been a couple weeks since my release I’ve had some time to kind of get back into things, get back into a normal way of life,” Velasquez said. “Get used to just doing the normal things. Being home with the family. Being there for my kids and I just wanted to thank everybody for their love and support. Your words of inspiration, of encouragement, constantly just lifted me up. Myself and my family. I just wanted to take this time to thank everybody for their constant support. You have no idea what your words and your encouragement and your love has meant to me and my family. Just thank you.
I’ll keep doing the work to get back to everyone. Just for myself now, just slowly get back out there. I didn’t want to overwhelm myself with the pace of life that I was getting used to, to now all of a sudden a new way of life, a new way of living, a new rhythm. For myself, I just kind of had to get used to it and I’ve been doing that. Again, just thank you, thank everyone. It’s good to be out,” he added.
After Cain got out of prison, other UFC stars like Daniel Cormier and Luke Rockhold, who are also his teammates at American Kickboxing Academy, congratulated him on finally being free.
That said, what do you think about both Daniel Rodriguez and Cain Velasquez’s release from jail? Also, will Kevin Holland get a rematch with ‘D-Rod’ after bailing him out?
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Edited by
Yeswanth Praveen