Hernandez relocates for summer training camp to fix flaws exposed by Strickland defeat

Anthony Hernandez has detailed the sweeping changes he made to his training and technique following his loss to Sean Strickland, with the middleweight contender set to headline UFC Sacramento against Gregory Rodrigues at Golden 1 Center on Saturday.

The defeat to Strickland ended an eight-fight winning streak for the 32-year-old and forced a period of honest self-assessment. Hernandez responded by spending the entire summer away from his family, relocating to the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas to address the specific weaknesses the loss had exposed.

“I had to make some adjustments, as simple as that,” Hernandez said. “If you fck up, you’re probably going to get fcked up. So, it lays it right out for you nice and perfectly, what you got to adjust and fix.”

At the Performance Institute, Hernandez trained alongside larger middleweights — fighters he described as dangerous — to sharpen his game under pressure. The decision to leave his family behind for an extended period underlines how seriously he took the lessons of the Strickland fight.

“I moved away from my family for the full summer,” he said. “Went to the P.I., locked all the way the fck in. Jumped in with a bunch of fcking ‘85ers that are f*cking dangerous.”

Hernandez was careful to share credit with his coaching staff while making clear that accountability inside the Octagon rests with him alone.

“I take full credit for everything,” he added. “I’m the mothercker that fights. With that being said, I have an amazing team that always does their homework and cleans up so much sht for me.”

The Sacramento card gives Hernandez a main-event platform to demonstrate those improvements in front of a home crowd, with Rodrigues providing a stern test for a fighter looking to re-establish himself among the division’s elite.