00:00And we welcome in Miami's own Luis Hernandez.
00:02He just earned himself a UFC contract this week.
00:06The Stash joining us here.
00:07He's also a Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office deputy.
00:10What's going on, Luis?
00:11Congratulations, man.
00:12Good afternoon, gentlemen.
00:13How are you guys doing?
00:14Good.
00:14We're good, man.
00:15We're good.
00:16Okay, take us through the night, man, because you had to deal with a knockdown.
00:20You had to deal with getting out of a choke, and then you choke out this dude to get to
00:26your victory.
00:26That was a wild-ass fight, Luis, to get through all of that.
00:30It was fun.
00:31That's what I wanted.
00:32I didn't want to make it a boring fight.
00:34I wanted people to remember and say, hey, this guy's a dog, and he's ready to go out there and
00:38put on a show.
00:39I'm very blessed.
00:40And firstly, I want to say thank God as well.
00:43What got you into this?
00:45Because usually, if you're, say, an officer, it's like you do this to stay in shape, or you do this
00:55to have to deal with some of the things you deal with on a daily basis.
00:59But now that you've kind of made this a profession, what made you take that final step and say, you
01:05know what?
01:05I'm pretty good at this.
01:06I'm going to go ahead on and try to make a living out of it.
01:09I will say the biggest thing that changed my life was I wrestled in high school.
01:16Oh, I played football.
01:18I was decent.
01:19But imagine I played left guard being 5'9".
01:22So I started.
01:25I started.
01:27But it was something that I got high school wrestling.
01:33I went to a school.
01:34I left my last year to wrestle at a better school, which is called Southwest.
01:37And that completely changed my life.
01:40I would say they're the best program in Florida.
01:44And I got a JUCO offer to go wrestle college.
01:47And I didn't take it because I wanted to stay here.
01:49And I did community college, got my degree.
01:52And I had that itch.
01:54I was getting into law enforcement.
01:56I was in the process.
01:57And I started training.
01:59And I was like, man, I'm beating some of these guys that are pro fighters.
02:03I had a heavyweight.
02:05I don't want to get his name.
02:06But completely way bigger than me.
02:08Six, you know, 6'3", 6'4".
02:10Heavy, heavy guy.
02:11And I put the paws on him.
02:12And he's like, hey, how many fights do you have?
02:14I'm like, one amateur fight.
02:16He's like, hey, you have a bright future.
02:18So it was just something that I truly loved it.
02:21I got into it.
02:22And I had all finishes as an amateur.
02:25I became pro.
02:27And I had some laps of time because I had transitioned from agencies to a different agency.
02:34And I had a couple fights.
02:36And somebody just snapped and said, hey, I'm going to make it to the UFC.
02:39And I'm going to be in the UFC for a while.
02:42Were you nervous this past week?
02:45Like, what were the nerves like?
02:45You get that opportunity on the Contender Series in front of Dana White.
02:49And the world is watching.
02:50You have your friends watching back home.
02:52We saw the Miami Dade cops watching you.
02:55Like, were there nerves?
02:56Was it excitement?
02:57What was the emotions of this week?
02:59And it was very life-changing and crazy because I actually told one of my coaches.
03:05Like, I went into a different place for this fight.
03:09Like, I say a dark place.
03:11But imagine.
03:12This is...
03:13Every fight is going to be the biggest fight of your life.
03:15But now this is your dreams in your grasp.
03:18Everything you've worked...
03:19I've been working for years to get to.
03:22I was like, man, am I supposed to be here?
03:25You know, my mentality was...
03:27I know I am.
03:29But, hey, this guy's huge.
03:32He's training as hard as me.
03:33He wants it as much as me.
03:35And I was just like, wow.
03:37What do I need to do to get this win?
03:39And not...
03:40You know, I had people texting me.
03:42They were like, hey, the parlay's locked.
03:44You know, we're going to make a...
03:46I'm like...
03:49It was just something where I will say this fight was a little bit different.
03:54I know I trained a lot.
03:56I was training three, four times a day for this fight.
03:59And I was prepared physically and mentally.
04:02But it was just...
04:02Man, imagine you get knocked out in front of all your family and friends.
04:05You know, that can happen in any fight.
04:07But it was just more that I got to get in here and win and impress the bosses.
04:12And make sure they like who I am.
04:14Not just as a fighter, but as a person.
04:17How hard is that to say you have to be in a ring...
04:21Like, you want to win.
04:23Right?
04:24But when it comes to what you're doing and what you had to go through, you not only have
04:29to win, you have to impress.
04:31So it's not just about winning.
04:33Like, you almost feel like you're putting yourself in harm's way, trying to be impressive
04:38instead of as a wrestler or as a, you know, as what your specialty is, going in there to
04:44just win a fight.
04:45That ain't good enough.
04:47You have to...
04:48Everything has to be as close to perfection.
04:51And that's something that I'm not going to say...
04:55I was with my wife in the room and I told her.
04:58I just put motivational videos.
05:00And I was just watching motivational videos before.
05:03And I was just...
05:04I did get into more of a spiritual place for this fight.
05:06I will say that.
05:07Always believe in God.
05:08But a lot of things leading up to this fight, you have to...
05:13You know, you want to look good.
05:14You want to be good.
05:15And it's very hard on you.
05:17Mentally, it is.
05:18But I was prepared for it.
05:21What was the...
05:22I guess the reaction from the force, man?
05:24All the friends that you have at the Miami-Dade PD.
05:28It had to be so cool.
05:29I imagine finally getting the reaction and you hitting all those parlays for your friends.
05:33Yeah, crazy.
05:34They loved...
05:35They made a lot of money.
05:38But I will say...
05:40That was another thing that was coming into this fight.
05:42There had never been a cop slash deputy to fight on contender.
05:45Been a bunch of firefighters.
05:47So for me, it was...
05:48I'm going to go down in the history books.
05:50Legacy.
05:51So that was another thing that was in my mind.
05:52Like, man, I'm the first cop.
05:54I got to put...
05:55You know, I got to go out there and win.
05:56And make a good win.
05:58Excuse me.
05:59Bless you.
06:00Bless you.
06:00Sorry about that.
06:01Oh.
06:01So the guys were going crazy.
06:03I don't know if you guys saw the video.
06:04The support that I have here, not just from my agency, but from the sheriff herself.
06:09It's amazing the support that I have.
06:11And a lot of the guys that I'm with, because I'm in a specialized unit, we train a lot.
06:16We deal with just active shooter and shootings.
06:19So a lot of guys...
06:20I have pro fighters as well.
06:21I have boxers.
06:22I have jiu-jitsu guys.
06:23So it's very...
06:24I'm very blessed to be where I'm at and have such a great support from not just the department,
06:28from the community.
06:29And the Latin community as well.
06:31Oh, my parents are Cuban.
06:32I tell everybody I'm Cuban as well.
06:34Do you...
06:36Can you compare, I guess, law enforcement nerves to fight nerves?
06:40Like, amazing, like, real-life consequence things, as opposed to it's just you, mano-a-mano,
06:44on the entertainment stage.
06:46Is there...
06:47Does that, I guess, help you be even more calm in fights?
06:50Or do you still get very nervous butterflies?
06:55I will say it's helped out a lot.
06:57I see things in slow motion.
06:59That's what I tell people.
07:00I feel like it's the matrix when I'm inside the fight.
07:02The things that we deal with at work 100% have prepared me for what I do in the aspect
07:08of competing and fighting.
07:11Talking to Luis Hernandez, he earned himself a UFC contract this week on Dana White's
07:15Contender Series.
07:16Congratulations to him.
07:17One of Miami's own.
07:18A W with Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office.
07:21Luis, when do you expect to get in there?
07:24Some guys, they get off contenders, they want to get there right away.
07:27It was a gnarly fight.
07:28Do you want a little bit of time off and enjoy it, or do you want to get right back
07:31in there?
07:32Hey, I enjoyed it enough.
07:34They call me right now.
07:36Hey, Luis, you want to fight in Utah next weekend?
07:37I'm in.
07:39I'm ready to go.
07:40One of my teammates, I don't know if you guys know him, a Miami local himself, Anthony
07:44Wint, played with the Jets.
07:46He did it in 11 days, and he's one of my teammates at Kill Cliff.
07:49I would love to do as he's doing and fight as soon as possible.
07:53He already has another fight booked.
07:54I'm trying to be active and fight here in Miami.
07:57I want to get two fights in before the April card in Miami, and I would love to headline that
08:02card with him here in Miami, and we're going to make a lot of noise, me and him.
08:06And I'll just ban Lee Dorseville.
08:07Does that make it tough, like, being a last-minute call-up when you might have to fight somebody
08:13that you don't get an opportunity to get, you know, work your way up, that you might
08:19hit a heavy...
08:20You're going big time right away.
08:22So, I'm actually going to tell you, majority of my fights leading up to this have been...
08:27I haven't had...
08:29This is the first time I had a real fight camp.
08:32The fight before that, I didn't know who my opponent was until the day of the fight.
08:36I've had fights at a three-day notice.
08:38I've had fights at a three-week notice.
08:40For me, there's a saying, if you stay ready, you don't got to get ready.
08:44So, I'm going back to the gym today, get some cardio in, and I'm ready to go.
08:50I'm ready to just wait for my name to be called and show the bosses why they signed me, and
08:55it's a stash takeover.
08:58Stash takeover.
08:59Exactly.
08:59We got some great mustaches now here, Leroy, between him and Jacob Rodriguez on the Dolphins.
09:03Oh, yeah.
09:03Yeah, I've heard about him.
09:04I've heard about him.
09:05It's going strong.
09:06Luis, before we get you out of here, I've always wanted to ask you about this, man.
09:08Your one-second knockout, I guess it went down as three on topology, but it doesn't seem
09:14like it was three seconds.
09:16You head-kicked a guy in your second pro fight.
09:19How the hell did you do that?
09:21Did you just see it immediately?
09:22Were you preparing for that right away?
09:24Because to knock out a guy, basically, bell rings, boom, fight's over.
09:27Yeah.
09:28So, I have another angle before.
09:31I know people have talked so much shit online about this.
09:34I have another angle of this.
09:35The guy was not coming.
09:37He never came to touch gloves.
09:40Listen, we touched gloves before the fight started, and I already knew this guy had fought.
09:46So, he had fought a couple months before, and I think he had gotten TKO'd.
09:50So, I already knew he hadn't recovered 100%.
09:53So, I said, hey, if I hit this guy, if I blast him with a head kick, I got some
09:56big legs.
09:58And I knew if I hit him with a head kick, I was going to send him to the shadow
10:00realm 100%.
10:02So, I was like, hey, I'm literally, I have a vlog with, there's a gentleman called Fighter's Delight, and the
10:10whole warm-up was one-two head kick.
10:14And that's all I warmed up.
10:15And I go, hey, I'm going to knock this guy somewhere else.
10:21And instantly, that moment, I felt it.
10:23When I came out, I go, this guy's going to go night-night.
10:25Threw that head kick, and the rest was history.
10:29I got to, you know, and that guy still, you know, it's been like three years, and he's still in
10:33his feelings about it.
10:34But I can tell you one thing.
10:36I got another angle of it.
10:37I got multiple angles, and the guy thought I was throwing a leg kick.
10:40He checked downward.
10:43Luis, congratulations, man.
10:44All the best.
10:44And we can't wait to watch your journey in the UFC, man.
10:47Congratulations.
10:47Miami's rooting for you.
10:48I appreciate what you guys do, man.
10:50Have a beautiful day.
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