Both middleweight contenders showed incredible heart in in Saturday's main event bout, with Rodrigues earning a hard-fought decision win to send Hernandez to his second straight loss. For their efforts, they won the evening's Fight of the Night award and an extra $100,000 for each of them.

As good as Rodrigues was scoring his first-ever five-round decision victory, Hernandez claims his opponent was using underhanded tactics during pivotal grappling exhanges.

“The more I seen him slow down, I thought, ‘OK, I'm going to get him this round,'†Hernandez said at the evening's post-fight press conference. “I hit him a few times, I rocked his shit, he's a tough son of a b*tch. I hit him with everything and the kitchen sink, hit him with some hard elbows, f*cker was cheating and grabbing the inside of my gloves and I told [referee] Herb [Dean] that.

“I fight clean, so it is what it is. Maybe I should be more dirty.â€

Hernandez made it clear he did his best to communicate the issue with Dean mid-fight, but other than a warning to Rodrigues, there was no penalty for the alleged foul.

“I told f*cking Herb, ‘This motherf*cker's grabbed my glove, like, four times. Hey, he's grabbing my gloves,' and he told him, ‘Hey, stop,'†Hernandez said. “But I mean, whatever. Don't take a point, whatever. I guess people like to cheat, so it is what it is.â€

Outside of that complaint, Hernandez had mostly positive things to say about Rodrigues, who earned a unanimous decision with a 49-46 score and a pair of 48-47s. Hernandez did plenty of damage of his own, but it wasn't enough to overcome Rodrigues' potent boxing and leg kicks that had Hernandez stumbling for much of the contest.

Hernandez told reporters he dealt with a shoulder injury in training camp that limited his preparation time, but he takes responsibility for the fight itself going south.

“I'm sure there's a f*ck-ton of mistakes I made,†Hernandez said. “But f*ck, hurt my leg early, had to make adjustments, and I had to do what I had to do to survive at that point.

“Gregory's a tough son of a b*tch. He hits f*cking hard. You've seen what he does to people. He hits them and puts them to sleep. I was still smiling, I was still coming forward. I told you guys, I love people trying to hurt me. I don't know what it is. I'm a sick f*ck in the head, I know that, but I love this shit.â€