Daniel Rodriguez enters UFC Belgrade with new perspective after prison time

A few months ago, Daniel Rodriguez would not have fathomed he’d be headlining a UFC event in Belgrade, Serbia, to kick off the promotion’s August schedule.

But fight week is underway, and Rodriguez (20-5 MMA, 10-4 UFC) is across the pond, soaking in the moment despite its business trip elements. More than anything else, he’s just happy to be free.

“It’s a dream come true,” Rodriguez recently told MMA Junkie. “It’s stuff you dream about while I was sitting in the jail cell. To get out and for all the positive things that have happened since, it’s just amazing. It’s really unbelievable.”

Rodriguez, 39, spent eight months in a Mexican prison after being arrested with marijuana on his person as he crossed the border. While he was able to train and work out, Rodriguez admits that it took him a while to truly get back in “MMA shape.”

“Getting released from prison, I thought I was in shape until I started doing some of the stuff you normally do during training,” Rodriguez said. “It was definitely a process getting my body back to being able to perform at an elite level. It was all part of the process. I just had to trust the process and embrace the journey. I believed in the work I had ahead of me. I was a little discouraged at first. But with a situation like this, headlining a UFC event, made me realize this was real.

“I’m very grateful to still be able to do this because there was a moment in time where I didn’t think I was going to be able to continue my career. Now that I’m able to, it definitely brings it to a new light in my life. I can say the difference in this fight camp is I’ve been a lot more dedicated and focused than my other fight camps. I’ve just been really playing this one out right and show up to practice every single day, show up to the gym every single day. I’ve barely taken days off, only when the coaches made me take days off. Even when they did, I would still go for a long-ass run or still do my own thing.”

Though the process was a bit harder and longer, Rodriguez thinks he can pick up where he left off. He rides a three-fight winning streak into his UFC Fight Night 283 main event Saturday vs. home country welterweight Uros Medic (13-3 MMA, 7-3 UFC). With great risk comes great reward – but in some regards, the battle is already won.

“Just getting here to this point is a victory in its own,” Rodriguez said. “Being able to come out here and headline a UFC fight, see my face on billboards, and just feeling the respect is unbelievable, man. It’s truly a dream come true. There were times where I’d pray for this, just to be able to still do this. Getting out and the story blowing up like it did and the UFC giving me a new contract and this opportunity and a tough opponent, it definitely made me rise to the occasion and embrace it in this moment.

“Coming out with a victory will definitely be historic, not only for me but for the whole MMA community and all of Los Angeles and everybody that’s rocking with me and all the fans and my family. Everybody knows what I’ve been through and how hard I’ve worked to get here to this moment right now. It’s an amazing story. I feel like it’s definitely a story that needs to be in a movie.”

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Daniel Rodriguez enters UFC Belgrade with new perspective after prison time