Rodrigues stays hot with dominant win to cap thrilling UFC Sacramento card

"Robocop" made sure of it on Saturday night, capping off a thrilling UFC Fight Night card with a unanimous decision win (48-47, 49-46, 48-47) over Anthony Hernandez in a middleweight main event from Sacramento, Calif.

Rodrigues has now won four fights in a row, a streak that began in June 2025 with a first-round TKO of Jack Hermansson. With the win over seventh-ranked Hernandez, the Brazilian improves to 11-3-0 in the UFC and should jump up the 185-pound standings from the No. 10 spot he held entering the octagon.

And despite the bout going to a decision, on a 13-fight card that saw a whopping 10 early stoppages (eight KO/TKOs, two submissions), Rodrigues and Hernandez still walked away with fight of the night bonuses. While there was some variance on which rounds were scored in whose favour, all three judges agreed Rodrigues took three of the five rounds, with Chris Leben scoring four rounds in favour of Rodrigues.

The only consensus among the scoring was that "Fluffy" took the third round thanks to an inspired barrage of strikes. But the eventual winner did respond with a unanimous 10-9 showing in Round 4 and later finished off the fight in emphatic fashion, mounted on top of Hernandez in the final seconds while landing ground-and-pound blows.

It was ultimately Rodrigues' overwhelming pressure and unrelenting activity that saw his hand raised following the 25-minute brawl. He landed 124 more significant strikes — at a 61 per cent clip versus Hernandez's 57 per cent — and scored three knockdowns to zero in the span of the fight.

And Rodrigues wasted no time after the fight to make it known who he wants to fight next.

"Dricus Du Plessis, where are you, man?" he said while speaking to Michael Bisping in the octagon. "I want you, let's go ... Dricus Du Plessis, I want you."

The South African, a former middleweight champ, is currently the No. 2-ranked fighter in the division.

As for Hernandez, his second consecutive loss drops him to 9-4-0 in the UFC. His last fight before Saturday was a third-round TKO loss to reigning middleweight champ Sean Strickland. Before his back-to-back losses in 2026, the Mexican had not lost a fight in the UFC since 2020. His last win came back in August 2025, a fourth-round submission victory over Roman Dolidze that earned him a performance of the night bonus.

Elsewhere on the card, Vitor Petrino won his heavyweight bout against Serghei Spivac in the co-main event, sweeping all three judges' scorecards 30-27.