Lightweight Alexander Hernandez earned a closely contested split decision victory on the prelims of UFC 307 last night, but it turns out that the craziest moment of his day occurred several hours earlier.
According to ‘The Great Ape’, both he and UFC flyweight contender Brandon Royval witnessed a shooting out in Salt Lake City just a few hours before he was scheduled to fight Austin Hubbard at UFC 307 – but don’t worry, ‘outside of that everyone’s been really friendly’.
Alexander Hernandez claims he saw someone get shot a few hours before UFC 307
Lightweight prospect Alexander Hernandez improved his professional record to 15-8 last night with a solid decision win over TUF alumni Austin Hubbard – yet Hernandez would make headlines not for the victory, but for his insane post-fight revelation.
“It’s been a fun time out here, caught a body today; I was on the way home from breakfast and saw somebody get shot,” stated Hernandez during his post-fight interview with media, even claiming that UFC flyweight Brandon ‘Rawdog’ Royval “chased down” the man allegedly responsible.
“My boy Rawdog chased down the shooter, kinda crazy… I was like ‘Dude, we got s*** to do today bro, we ain’t got time to play, we got to get to the f**** hotel man’… That was crazy, but outside of that everyone’s been really friendly, so it was a really cool experience all week.”
The entire media room was understandably taken aback by such a brazen comment, with Hernandez asked to provide more details about what he saw and how the former UFC flyweight title challenger was involved.
“I’d Just copped an Avocado Toast, walking home back to the hotel and we turn this corner to hear like five shots rattled off and Brandon loves to yell ‘gunshots’ and I’m like ‘It could be anything’ and he’s like ‘No it’s gunshots’ and boom, boom, boom – we hear another round and I’m like ‘That sounds a little gunshotty.’
“Then we kind of stop for a minute, people start running through the street and crowding around and this guy’s wagging his tail like he’s a little too excited about these gunshots.”
According to Hernandez, he and his team were then set to order a taxi back to the fighter hotel when an unknown man ran past them.
“These guys come panting like running past us and Brandon goes to him ‘Hey what’s happening’ and this guy’s like ‘Nothing, just run’… It turns out that was the guy with the gun and this f***** guy like a f***** Doberman comes running after him too!
“I’m like ‘Dude, we’ve got to go the other way’, but if there’s anything I learned from this week it’s like don’t ever try and chase Brandon cause he’ll find us and I start going back to the hotel, and he’s on the f***** prowl like Sherlock Holmes, like chasing after him.”
Hernandez would laugh off the serious nature of such an incident, simply noting that it was “a crazy start” to his UFC 307 fight day: “Just when I wrote off Salt Lake as like a pacifist town, they’re about that life… That was this morning, pre-noon. Crazy, wild day.”
Only a few hours later, Dana White would be asked to give his response, to which the UFC CEO revealed that he hadn’t heard about the alleged incident: “Holy s***… This has happened in the past; it’s weird how much this happens to our guys. I don’t even know what to say to that.”
Brandon Royval is actually set to headline next weekend’s Fight Night card at The Apex against undefeated Japanese contender Tatsuro Taira.