If the UFC ever did an event in Podunk, Anthony Hernandez would happily headline it. One of the things you’ll quickly learn about “Fluffy,” other than his vocabulary leads the UFC in four-letter words, is that he can’t stand the big city. That’s why plunking him down in the sprawling epicenter of Houston this weekend to take on Sean Strickland feels to him like a necessary evil.
It’s just one of the compromises of being a middleweight contender, fighting in large metropolises. What he prefers is the skyscraper-less environs of rural Northern California, where the tallest building in his hometown — El Dorado Hills Fire Station No. 85 — stands 40-feet tall. And when you ask him where he’d like to be at the end of 2026, that’s where he places himself, right there at home, with a shiny accessory that’s too big to fit through ordinary belt loops.
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“I would like to be back on my f***ing ranch with a title belt,” he says. “That’s what I want, to be out of the f***ing city. I f***ing hate the city. Sacramento has been cool to me. Everyone’s been super nice to me. But yeah, no, I need to go back to Yolo County in the 530, where I’m from.”
Anthony Hernandez reacts after a submission victory against Roman Dolidze of Georgia in a middleweight fight during a UFC Fight Night on Aug. 9, 2025, in Las Vegas. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
(Jeff Bottari via Getty Images)
You only live once, and Fluffy is doing it on a contender’s highwire. He has won eight fights in a row to place himself in what is widely presumed to be a title eliminator against ex-champ Strickland. These stages are always a Jenga puzzle, in that one misstep brings the whole body of work down. The pressure’s on because Houston is meant to be the continuation, not the end.
The thing is UFC matchmakers haven’t guaranteed Hernandez a title shot if he wins on Saturday night. At least not officially. And without that guarantee, fighting a tough out like Strickland can be a thankless task, especially when the end goal is to get nearer to Khamzat Chimaev’s belt.
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“I mean, like [Daniel Cormier] said, he’s never heard of anyone on an eight-fight win streak not getting a f***ing title shot,” Hernandez says. “If I go nine, I mean, I would expect to get a title. But if I got to keep proving myself, then so be it.”
Chimaev, it should be noted, isn’t tracking to be the most prolific champion. Many, including Strickland, believe his defenses will be a once-a-year-occurrence, which makes title conversations that much more delicate. The UFC already has a ready-made 185-pound contender in Nassourdine Imavov (No. 2), who is ranked two spots above Hernandez (currently sitting at No. 4) in the UFC’s rankings.
Yet there doesn’t seem to be any rush to get Imavov into the cage with Chimaev, either.
How things play out Saturday will determine the UFC’s course, yet Chimaev hovers over the proceedings like a Chechen phantasm, and he’s where all arrows are aimed. After racking up over 21 minutes of control time in his title-clinching fight against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319, Chimaev solidified himself as the most relentless wrestler in the division (if not the UFC), which made Strickland’s declaration about Hernandez’s ability all the more outlandish.
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Strickland said last week he thought Fluffy was a better wrestler than Chimaev, which some people saw as gamesmanship. Then again, it could just be Strickland being Strickland.
“I’m not even a wrestler, so I mean dope, you know what I mean?” Hernandez says. “Because I grew up f***ing striking, so I mean … I know how to wrestle, yes, but I feel like I’m a mixed martial artist. I wouldn’t say that I’m great at one thing. If I was the f***ing best boxer in the world, I’d be boxing. I’m f***ing pretty good at all this s***, and when I get to combine them into my own world, I’m great at it. So yeah, that’s it.”
Hernandez doesn’t have any bad blood with Strickland, whom he exchanged numbers with at one point and invited to come train with him in California. But business is business, and right now Strickland stands in his way. At 32 years old, Hernandez is in his prime. It’s one of the reasons he’d like his chance against Chimaev, who right now looks like a tyrant atop the ranks.
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Hernandez doesn’t necessarily see him that way.
“I think he likes to wrestle and hug people,” he says. “He doesn’t get hurt. The times that he’s tried to bang with people he was a weight bully, he missed weight, beat up little 55s that came up to 70. I don’t know. At one time I had an interaction with him. He’s a punk, so I don’t really f*** with the guy, and personally I would like to f*** him up. So it is what it is, but I’m coming. So either get rid of the f***ing belt or fight me.”
That interaction occurred at UFC 273 in 2022, when Hernandez fought Josh Fremd and Chimaev took on Gilbert Burns. Hernandez says he tried to be friendly only to be shut down.
“He just mad-dogged me,” Hernandez says. “He was like, ‘No.’ I’m like, ‘What the f***, bro?’ I’m trying to be respectful and s***. I mean, we’re not fighting. I wasn’t even fighting him.
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“I don’t know, some people just rub me the wrong way, you know what I mean? We’re all f***ing athletes. We’re all f***ing cutting weight and we’re all f***ing being respectful, mother****er. You know what I mean? I don’t know if it’s just different cultural understanding of language and barriers and s***, I don’t know. He just came off like a punk.”
That fight, should it happen, would be interesting in that it would bring two dictating forces together. In his last three fights, Hernandez has been somewhat of a tyrant himself, racking up nearly eight minutes of control time against Roman Dolidze in his last fight, over 10 minutes against Brendan Allen and over 15 minutes against Michel Pereira, while scoring 23 takedowns all told. Much like Chimaev, Hernandez’s plan is to win by onslaught. To break the will of the man in front of him.
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Hernandez has shown a high level of dog in his fights, which is to say, an ability to up the level of mean to meet every occasion.
“Yeah, I don’t know where that comes from,” he says. “I know that when you lock me in a cage with someone, people b**** up, and that’s not the case for me. You know what I mean?”
That’s why he’s in the cosmopolitan sprawl of Houston, with the main-event spotlight shining down on him. Because he doesn’t b**** up once the cage locks.
“Sometimes I go in there with a game plan, but it doesn’t always work out perfectly,” he says. “But I understand this game very well. So with that being said, I’m the captain of the f***ing ship. They send me to war, and then the rest is feedback from everyone.”
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Hernandez has more relatives in Texas and Oklahoma than he does in California, many of whom will be on hand to see him fight at the Toyota Center. He says he will have strong support in Houston, but other than punching his ticket to a title shot, the thing he’s most looking forward to is getting the hell out of there.
