Rodriguez has a story to pass down through
generations.
Rodriguez (20-5) is scheduled to headline UFC
Belgrade against Uros Medic
(13-3) on Aug. 1. The booking comes just months after Rodriguez was
released from a Mexican prison.
Rodriguez was arrested for crossing the Mexican border with
marijuana and ended up spending eight months in a prison in
Tijuana. Rodriguez recently revealed how he ended up sharing a cell
in jail with a cartel leader. Rodriguez was getting bitten by
bedbugs while initially sharing a room with 20 guys. By then, the
word had gotten around that “D-Rod” was a UFC fighter. A guard
offered to shift Rodriguez to better accommodations in the jail for
$7,000. Rodriguez then met with the guy who was the leader of a
gang and had special arrangements in the jail. In addition to all
the basic amenities, the leader’s cell also had a TV with a
PlayStation. The gang leader offered Rodriguez to move into his
cell for $3,000, and the UFC welterweight immediately
obliged.
While sharing the cell, the cartel head would ask Rodriguez to walk
around with him in the yard. Rodriguez got the feeling that the
leader wanted to show that they both had each other’s backs.
Rodriguez also trusted the cartel boss, which he admits is a tough
thing to do in prison.
‘I Really Trusted Him’
“Turns out, dude’s the head of a cartel,” Rodriguez said on
“The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. “He’s like,
‘I wanted to show you around a little bit, let you know how we’re
running things out here.’ Kind of just gave me the rundown. And
this dude had it made. I get there, there TVs in the f—-ing cells,
he has a PlayStation, he has all the amenities you could think of…
He’s like, ‘If you want, you could come up here and get
accommodated with us. But it’s gonna cost you a little bit of
money, $3,000.’ I looked at the guard; this guard was trying to
charge me $7,000… I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ So they gave me
this brand new Nike tracksuit. I get there, and he’s like, ‘Just be
my cellmate.’… I ended up getting the feeling that I was his
protection. We would go to the yard, and he would be like, ‘Walk
with me.’ I got the impression that I’m his cellmate, I got his
back, he got my back. I really trusted him; that’s one hard thing
to do in jail.”
The cartel boss was serving a sentence along with his whole gang
for impersonating government officials and raiding drug houses. The
cartel leader also had some boxing experience and helped Rodriguez
train by arranging boxing gloves and holding the mitts for
him.