An eight-fight win streak usually brings swagger, but for Anthony Hernandez, the hype heading into UFC Houston carries a different tone: a subtle admission of a painful struggle that nearly derailed his momentum. While the poster promotes a star-making bout against a former champion, it doesn’t show the weeks Hernandez spent unable to train, sleep, or even cough without debilitating pain. That part stayed buried—until now.

In a recent interview, Anthony Hernandez finally opened up about the injuries that led him to miss a crucial fight against Reinier de Ridder late last year. “No, I tore something,” he explained, declining to go into the details of the damage. Not out of mystery, but strategy. “I’m not gonna say it because motherf—— are gonna start targeting it.” However, what he did explain was the experience.

Anthony Hernandez admits injury nearly derailed his momentum

Three to four weeks of complete shutdown. ‘Fluffy’ confessed, “Yeah, it’s f——; it was horrible. I couldn’t cough, I couldn’t be like, I couldn’t sleep. Like, I roll over and s—. It was f—— killing me. It was like, it was just f——- annoying.”

The pain wasn’t dramatic; it was relentless. The kind that accompanies you to bed and waits for you to move. According to Anthony Hernandez’s own description, the injury was most likely an oblique or abdominal muscle tear. Pain during coughing, rolling over, or trying to sleep usually indicates a constantly engaged core muscle.

His fear about opponents like Sean Stricland targeting the area is equally understandable, as obliques are extremely vulnerable to body shots and clinch pressure. When combined with the three-to-four-week absence and ongoing stiffness, everything points to a core injury that doesn’t fully disappear—it’s just managed. And even now, heading into UFC Houston, he claims it isn’t perfect.

“I’m a little bit sore still… but it’s holding up,” he added. And to make sure that ‘Fluffy’ is fight-ready on February 21, Anthony Hernandez stated that teammates have been hitting the area in training, testing it the hard way. If it was going to fail, it would have happened by now. The timing makes it even more interesting.

Anthony Hernandez is not backing down against a forgiving opponent. He’ll go five rounds with Sean Strickland, a former champion who thrives on pressure, volume, and dragging fights into uncomfortable territory. ‘Fluffy’ understands this. That’s why the message was so simple: the injury was real, it was awful, but for him it’s done.

“I’m f—— good again,” he declared. At UFC Houston, that claim will be put to the ultimate test.

But the physical battle to make it to Houston was only one of Hernandez’s recent fights. He also faced a bureaucratic challenge just to represent his heritage in the octagon, a struggle that speaks to the pride fueling his comeback.

‘Fluffy’ shared his grandparents’ birth certificates to represent Mexico

Anthony Hernandez’s confidence, which he brings to UFC Houston, wasn’t just tested in the gym. Before the fight week even began, he had to overcome a challenge unrelated to takedowns or pressure. To walk out under the Mexican flag, Hernandez was asked to prove his ties.

The process involved paperwork, phone calls, and digging into family history to prove his eligibility to represent Mexico. Talking to Ariel Helwani, Anthony Hernandez explained that he had to present his grandparents’ birth certificates to confirm his eligibility, a process that forced him to revisit stories he grew up hearing.

“They almost didn’t let me walk out to represent Mexico anymore, because I had to show proof of residency,” Hernandez said. He further revealed that his father was smuggled across the border as a child. His mother’s side also has ancestral roots in Mexico. “I grew up super Mexican, so to me, that’s my pride, you know what I mean? Like, I carry a lot of pride with that,” Hernandez added.

For ‘Fluffy,’ the flag isn’t about branding. It’s lineage, pride, and a bond he’s had long before the UFC asked for documentation. But of course, Sean Strickland couldn’t help but poke at it. On Instagram, he shared an edited version of their fight poster to depict Hernandez in a traditional Mexican costume while portraying himself in an ICE agent uniform, a typically provocative move from ‘Tarzan’.

Anthony Hernandez did not bite. Between fighting through injury and fighting for recognition of his heritage, the noise seems secondary. For ‘Fluffy,’ this fight is about proving his worth—on the card, in the division, and under the flag he has chosen to represent.