UFC's Daniel Rodriguez breaks silence after spending past 8 months in Mexican prison: 'It was the most horrible situation'

Daniel Rodriguez was busy doing time during his time away from MMA. Cooper Neill via Getty Images Daniel Rodriguez intended to celebrate his latest UFC win under much better circumstances than he did. Instead, a short weekend trip turned into a long, nightmarish eight months.

After enduring a three-fight skid from 2022-24, the welterweight veteran rallied to rebound with three straight wins, culminating at UFC 318 against Kevin Holland last July. Rodriguez, 39, has been a ghost ever since, causing the MMA world to wonder where he vanished to. Last week, Rodriguez's answer came as a big surprise — he revealed on social media that he'd been incarcerated in a Mexican prison in Tijuana.

Speaking Monday on "The Ariel Helwani Show," Rodriguez said that he and a friend were on their way to Mexico for vacation two weeks after his Holland win. That's when everything went awry. "I went on vacation to cross the border of Mexico," Rodriguez told Uncrowned.

"Forgot I had a little bag of weed with me, man. It was under an ounce and got pulled over at the line and got checked — the border patrol were tripping on the weed. "I was thinking I was only going to be in [jail] there for probably the weekend, maybe a little bit shorter, but the laws over there out there in Mexico, they're way different.