A gesture of support during UFC Vegas 56 quickly turned ugly for rising flyweight contender Jeff Molina.
Molina earned a split decision win over Zhalgas Zhumagulov on Saturday. But much of the weekend conversation surrounding the fight stemmed from negative comments that Molina received over his decision to wear shorts celebrating Pride Month.
“It’s not even about being an ally,” Molina said in his post-fight press conference. “I’m not saying I’m not, but just be a decent [expletive] person. Just be a decent human being.”
“And judging someone and trying to justify it with religion and saying all sorts of spiteful, hateful [expletive] …” he continued. “It’s crazy to me. It’s mind-boggling. Who cares who someone wants to be with? Or their sexual preference?”
Molina went to say that he chose to wear the shorts at UFC Vegas because he thought they looked cool and they supported a good cause.
Much of the negativity came after Molina shared a video of his fight night bottoms leading up to the event.
Molina said that there were a couple of narratives floating around that it was just a business tactic for the UFC, while others were much more disturbing.
“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,’” he continued. “I’m telling you there were dozens and dozens of these. People were like ‘You should get cut from the UFC for supporting [expletive].’ There was a lot of those, man.”
Molina said that he never expected to receive so much hate for wearing the shorts. But, felt like it needed to be addressed.
Concluding, “To those saying this hateful [expletive], you guys on your own are the problem. You guys are what’s wrong with the world.”