Jeff Molina, 24, is one of the most exciting Flyweight prospects to come out of Dana White’s “Contender Series” program. And while his Octagon debut at UFC 261 resulted in a $50,000 “Fight of the Night” bonus, the night wasn’t quite perfect … because his father was unable to attend because of a liver cancer diagnosis.
Fortunately, for his second fight against Daniel da Silva at UFC Vegas 41 last night (Oct. 23, 2021), Molina’s dad is “definitely better” and was in attendance inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“He really wanted to be at my debut and that was at the peak of his diagnosis, but when I signed the contract for this fight, he told me that he really wants to be there at this fight in Vegas,” Molina told UFC.com leading up to the fight. “ He said, ‘I want to watch you compete under the UFC lights.’”
And what a performance his son had. While he didn’t snag another performance bonus, Molina did win in the second round with a nuclear right hand into some nasty ground-and-pound. And getting to hug his father immediately afterward?
Priceless.
After the fight, Molina admitted he was “pretty f—ked up” coming into the bout and plans to take off a bit of time … but not too much.
“I have a vacation planned,” he said with a big smile. “I’m taking my parents to Hawaii. Hopefully, my mom’s not watching this because her birthday is on Wednesday and I’m surprising her with those tickets. Hopefully she’s not watching this. But that’s December 1st. Any time after that, I’m cash money.”