UFC fighter Molina hits out at 'spiteful' backlash for rainbow shorts (2024)

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UFC fighter Jeff Molina was stunned by the negative backlash from some fans who objected to him supporting Pride Month.

Molina's shorts featured his name in rainbow colours as a gesture of solidarity with theLGBTQIA+ community during his fight againstZhalgas Zhumagulov in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

He thought little of the gesture so was taken aback by what he perceived to be a wave of criticism for the shorts online.

One Twitter user wrote: 'Ain't no one wants to see those ugly ass shorts, and Molina is a bozo, he will forever be known as the gay shorts guy.

Another posted: 'Jeff Molina going viral today because it's really easy to go viral in today's society when you're good at virtue signalling.'

A third simply put: Rainbow shorts for Molina? Rooting for Zhumagulov.'

Molina claimed victory by a controversial decision and addressed the criticism of his choice of fight gear in his post-fight press conference.

He said: 'I picked the colors because I thought it looked cool, and then also it supports a good cause.

'I'll support anything of a community that's been oppressed and ostracized for some time for something they can't help.

'I'll get behind any of that. It wasn't that long ago that there was school segregation, and that was like less than a person ago, something like Stonewall, that was like 50 years ago. That's not even a whole person ago, man – this is recent s***.

'I just thought in 2022 people would be a little more open-minded and not pieces of s***, but I guess I was wrong. It's just crazy to me.

'People were saying some crazy s*** and like, dude, what would you do if your kid's gay? Mind your own business, it doesn't concern you. Get f*****.'

He continued: 'Who the f*** cares, bro. It's not even about being an ally — I'm not saying I'm not — but it's just like, just be a decent f****** person.

'Just be a decent human being. Judging someone, and then trying to justify it with religion, and saying all sorts of spiteful, hateful s*** is crazy to me. It's mind-boggling.

'Who cares who someone wants to be with, their sexual preference, and then the irony of trying to justify it with religion of something that's supposed to be so accepted, and I was honestly shocked [with the negative reaction].'

The UFC have released a Pride Month t-shirt and 100 percent of the sales are going to an LGBTQIA+ Center in Southern Nevada.

Molina also received a number of positive messages online for his gesture of solidarity, with some saying he is their 'new favourite' fighter.

The flyweight has won his last 10 fights and holds a record of 11-2.

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