‘Robocop’ Faces Anthony Hernandez in a UFC Fight Night 2026 Showdown
California can be considered a land of opportunity, which takes many forms. The form it will take on August 22nd at 8:00 p.m. EDT will be presented by the UFC’s Men’s Middleweight Division at the Golden 1 Center. The fighters, who will be headlining at the Golden 1 Center, are none other than Anthony Hernandez versus Gregory Rodrigues. There could be no better matchup, too, given they’re both the antithesis of each other. In short, when one goes for a takedown, the other will be waiting to turn it into an advantage from a clinch.
Hernandez more than likely will be the one to seek the takedown. He is currently 32 years old and has taken the nickname ‘Fluffy’ during his time with the UFC. Ironically, he is not a teddy bear as the name could imply, but instead his opponent will find out he is quite dangerous with the number of takedowns he will attempt. For example, every 15 minutes he secures 5.88 takedowns on average, with 48% being accurate. He even demonstrated his ability to ragdoll a prominent fighter like Roman Dolidze, who had similar stats to those of Rodriguez. Interestingly, the takedowns do not result in higher strikes absorbed per minute, which comes out to 3.10 per minute. This makes him not only dangerous in takedowns but an agile fighter who is tough to land significant strikes on.
The Brazilian middleweight could land those significant strikes since he lands 5.53 strikes per minute. He’s only 34 years old himself and has yet to throw in the towel on his 19-6-0 fight career. A career that is longer and more accomplished than ‘Fluffy's 15-3-0 fight career. On top of that, he’s slightly taller than his 32-year-old opponent and naturally has some advantage there should they go to the ground. Also, if he senses an attempt from Hernandez to go to the ground, he can safely rely on his 75% takedown defense to circumvent any problem from it.
The ground could be where this fight ends, as most crowd predictions put the surging middleweight contender winning by submission. However, ‘Fluffy’ will be surprised if the fight doesn’t go there due to his 34-year-old opponent’s tendency to defend takedown attempts well. He could let ‘Robocop’ try and go for takedowns himself to lure him into a trap. He could also let his opponent tire himself out by the second round, which would allow for an opening for a significant strike. That would be most unlikely considering ‘Robocop’ is the striker of the two.
Crowd predictions are exactly that: a prediction. They do not guarantee that a takedown artist in the form of the 32-year-old fighter will upend the fight with that technique alone. Instead, the fight will most likely go to his 34-year-old opponent, who, according to the stats, will see takedown attempts made and will capitalize on keeping the fight standing so he can deliver significant and critical strikes alike. All he needs is time to measure out the strikes that will be dodged by ‘Fluffy’ and then land steel strikes of punishment that harken to his earned nickname of ‘Robocop’. The way to see this, though, will be to tune in on the date and time listed above through Paramount+!
