Debutant Hernandez vows to retire Chris Curtis after veteran's callout 48 hours post-UFC win

Luis Hernandez has wasted no time making enemies in the UFC. Just days after submitting Sedriques Dumas in 57 seconds at UFC Vegas 121 to earn a Performance of the Night bonus on his promotional debut, the unbeaten middleweight prospect found himself in a public war of words with UFC veteran Chris Curtis.

Curtis, who carries a 6-5-1 record inside the UFC and has history with Hernandez dating back to a viral cage-storming incident at Tuff-N-Uff 145 in June 2025, released a video this week calling out the newcomer and threatening to “fold this man up like a cheap suitcase.”

Hernandez, a 30-year-old Miami-Dade Sheriff’s deputy who went 9-0 as a professional before his UFC debut, was not short of a response.

“He’s trying to get off my clout,” Hernandez told MMA Fighting. “No offense to him, he’s 39 years old — he’s about to be retired. In my mind, he is retired. He’s 6-5-1 in the UFC, never done anything with his career. It just shows you the type of caliber fighter I am that I win a contract and he’s calling me out already. Guy has like 40-something fights and he’s calling out a guy that’s 8-0.”

Hernandez’s debut itself was a remarkable story. He earned his UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series less than two weeks before the Vegas 121 card, then accepted the fight with Dumas on just two days’ notice — and delivered one of the most eye-catching finishes of the year.

On the prospect of eventually sharing the octagon with Curtis, Hernandez was equally direct. “He wants to fold me like a chair. I’m going to retire him and send him to an old person’s home if he keeps messing around with me. I’m going to be the final nail that goes into that coffin, and Chris Curtis is going to get retired.”

Hernandez also revisited the Tuff-N-Uff incident, suggesting Curtis’s current aggression rings hollow given how events played out in person. “When I shoved him off, he didn’t throw a punch,” Hernandez said. “He said, ‘Don’t do that, don’t do that.’ He didn’t say anything then — now he has a grudge. He’s just trying to get notoriety off what I am. I’m already bigger than him.”

The 39-year-old Curtis has not yet responded to Hernandez’s latest comments. No fight between the two has been scheduled.