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€

On Saturday night, “Robocop†picked up the biggest win of his career, outlasting Anthony Hernandez in the main event of UFC Sacramento to win a unanimous decision. The win should vault Rodrigues up the middleweight rankings and put him fully in the title mix at 185 pounds. Meanwhile, “Fluffy†has now lost two in a row, and his future at middleweight seems uncertain.

Following UFC Sacramento, MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and Alexander K. Lee discuss Robocop's big win and what it means for the 185-pound division. They also break down some of the other big storylines from the card — including Reinier de Ridder's successful UFC light heavyweight debut and Carli Judice's emergence at flyweight — wax poetic on Cris Cyborg's scare in PFL, answer viewer questions, and more.

Watch the UFC Sacramento post-fight show above, or stream an audio-only version below and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your pods.

On Saturday night, Lopez moved up to the welterweight division to challenge his friend, Rolly Romero, for the WBA welterweight title at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. After 12 rounds, Lopez edged out a majority decision to take the title after 12 rounds of tepid action.

Longtime friends, the relationship between Lopez and Romero appeared to be on rocky ground heading into the bout, leading many to wonder what sort of fight fans might be in store for, and in the end, it looked more like a sparring session between friends rather than a world title fight.

For most of the 12 rounds, Lopez leaned on a high-volume style, relying on his hand speed and craft to consistently out-work Romero with jabs and body shots. Romero, meanwhile, spent much of the fight waiting on Lopez, looking for an opportunity to land a big counter shot to turn the tide.

In the fifth round, Romero finally got just that, landing a check left hook when Lopez came in that put “The Takeover†on skates. Lopez was able to survive the scary moment and make it to the end of the round. That could have been a tide shift for Romero, but instead he returned to his low-output style in the next round and was comfortably outworked for the remainder of the fight.

In the end, Lopez won a decision; though, boxing being boxing, one judge scored the fight a draw, resulting in a majority decision win for Lopez.