Vieira called his meeting with Hernandez the “worst day of his life” and “worst performance of his life” after submitting to a guillotine choke in the second round of the preliminary-card bout on Saturday in Las Vegas. It was the first professional MMA loss of Vieira’s career against a 30-1 underdog in Hernandez, a purple belt in jiu-jitsu.
Here is Vieira’s statement in its entirety.
“Guys, yesterday was worst day of my life, it was the worst performance of my life. It was my son’s first time watching me, even though he’s a baby and he doesn’t understand anything, [it] is a good thing he didn’t see the beating his dad got LOL. It was also the first time I fought after my grandmother passed away. She was one of my biggest fans and watched all of my fights. I wanted to come out victorious and dedicate it to them!
“Unfortunately, not everything happens as we want. I still don’t understand why I got so tired so early in the first round. I had some mistakes that I know what [they] were and I’m sure will be fixed, but to get tired the way I got, I still can’t understand. I had a great camp, had the best weight cut so far, everything went well... but hats off to Anthony for the great win, I do hope he gets the $50,000 for the ‘Performance of the Night.’
“I know I still have to get evolve a lot in everything, I never hid that, and train hard every day in search of that evolution. Anyway, it’s in the past. I just want to thank you all for the messages of support that you keep sending, you really are unbelievable. I’m thankful to God, I feel blessed for having the family and friends I have, and fans that don’t know me but still make me feel so strong and important and loved by all of you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, I love you.”
Hernandez indeed won a $50,000 performance bonus at UFC 258. At the post-fight press conference for the event, he implored betting winners to Venmo him cash and downplayed the significance of tapping a submission expert, which ran contrary to his coaches’ plans for him in the octagon. The win put him back on good footing after a TKO loss to Kevin Holland in his previous outing.
{feed:enclosure_href }
More...
