UFC flyweight Jeff Molina was left stunned at the backlash he received for wearing Pride shorts during his latest fight.
Molina remained unbeaten in the UFC by winning a controversial split decision against Zhalgas Zhumagulov in Las Vegas last weekend. The 24-year-old found himself dealing with a lot of attention from fans over his decision to wear the UFC's custom uniform in recognition of Pride Month.
The UFC created the fight kit to help raise money and awareness for the LGBTQIA+ Center of Southern Nevada. Molina, who wore the rainbow-coloured shorts in his fight against Zhumagulov, revealed some of the vulgar comments he received on social media.
“It was strange because I thought it was something so nonchalant, simple, minuscule,” Molina said on The MMA Hour. “Like, dude, check out my shorts, there’s rainbow colouring on it, it’s just cool that the UFC is doing this for Pride Month.
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"I didn’t look at my phone for a couple of hours. I try not to be on my phone too much for fight week, I look at my phone and the comments are split. Actually, not really, the comments were pretty much all pretty hateful.
“There were a couple of narratives in the comments like, ‘The UFC is just doing this to exploit, it’s a business tactic, they’re doing this for money, they don’t really care. Blah blah blah.’ The other parts were, ‘Man, you support gay people, you’re gonna burn in Hell. Allah will make sure you burn in hell or God will make sure you burn in hell.’"
Molina admitted that he was bothered by the criticism and thought that "people would be a little more open-minded" about the topic. The UFC has several female fighters who are openly gay, such as former two-weight champion Amanda Nunes, but there is yet to be an openly gay male fighter in the promotion.
Despite the vulgar comments he received, Molina was also left confused by those applauding him for wearing the shorts. "What’s weird is I feel like I’m being appreciated for something I shouldn’t be appreciated for," he continued.
"It’s like being applauded for saying, ‘Murder is wrong.’ This should just be common: Rape is wrong. Racism is wrong. Being hateful towards someone for who they love is wrong. That’s the only thing that makes me feel weird about this whole situation."
