UFC fighter hits back at homophobic comments over rainbow flag pride shorts

UFC fighter Jeff Molina has hit back at fans who complained after he wore shorts with a rainbow flag design in order to show support and raise money for the LGBTQ+ community during pride month.

The 24-year-old made a subtle alteration to his usual black shorts by having his surname written in rainbow colours, assisting the UFC’s Pride Month campaign, which is seeing it donate all profits from LGBTQ+-themed t-shirt sales to a community organisation in Nevada in the United States.

The New Jersey native managed a victory over Zhalgas Zhumagulov in a preliminary flyweight bout organised by the UFC on Saturday night, increasing his record to 11 wins from 13 fights.

But the reception the shorts were given online was not entirely positive, with a slew of homophobic comments posted online. Molina, though, doubled down on his support for what he called an ‘oppressed and ostracised’ community.

‘I picked the colours because I thought it looked cool, and then also it supports a good cause,’ Molina said following his victory. ‘I’ll support anything of a community that’s been oppressed and ostracised 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*****.’

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