From guards asking for pictures to being up close and personal with the Mexican cartel, Daniel Rodriguez’s prison experience was wild.In fact, the ranked UFC welterweight described his time in a Tijuana jail a matter of months ago as ‘hell,’ using resources to transform his eight months behind bars into a fight camp to, ultimately, survive.Rodriguez scored his third consecutive UFC victory last July – but the American was arrested shortly afterGettyRodriguez is returning to the UFC on August 1, fresh off eight months in prison.“When I first got there, one of the guards recognised me,” Rodriguez explained on The Joe Rogan Experience this week.“I’m in handcuffs and he’s like, ‘Yo, can I get a picture?’ I’m like, ‘What?!’ and I’m out there taking pictures with the guards.“The other inmates were looking around like, ‘Who is this guy?”Rodriguez is headlining the UFC’s first-ever event in Serbia, taking on local Uros Medic in Belgrade.The 39-year-old from California is on a three-fight winning streak in Dana White‘s promotion, having outpointed Kevin Holland at UFC 318 in his last fight.After his win over Holland, word from Team Rodriguez fell silent, and fans were left in the dark over the fighter’s whereabouts.What happened to UFC’s Rodriguez?As it turns out, ‘D-Rod’ was out celebrating his victory over Holland in San Diego and wanted to visit Tijuana, Mexico, just south of the border, to keep the party going.While details of Rodriguez’s arrest have remained private, the American says he was detained at the Mexican border checkpoint after being found with ‘under an ounce’ of marijuana.Thinking he would spend the weekend in a cell, the fighter was soon told he would be revisited in a month, and that was when reality settled in.View Tweet: https://x.com/joeroganhq?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwMMA fans were unaware of where Rodriguez had been after his win over Holland, until the fighter revealed two months ago that he had spent almost a year in jailGettyAlthough Rodriguez is no stranger to imprisonment, admitting he was in and out of different facilities in his youth, he said this time around was ‘a whole different experience.’Despite the help of UFC officials, including matchmaker Hunter Campbell, as well as Mexican fighters Yair Rodriguez and Brandon Moreno, Rodriguez was unable to get out as early as he’d hoped.He spent his first 10 days in a holding cell with 20 other men, where some slept on the floor, and had to battle bed bugs regularly in an unsurprisingly unpleasant environment he described as ‘hell.’After a guard tried to charge him $7,000 to get out of the cell to better conditions, Rodriguez eventually paid $3,000 to be transferred, landing in the same area as a cartel leader and a hitman.How ‘D-Rod’ continued training behind bars“We ended up working it out with the guards to get me some boxing gloves,” Rodriguez added, recounting his experience from then on in.“It just so happened that the dude I was cellmates with had a little bit of boxing experience.Rodriguez's last five UFC fightsW – Kevin Holland via unanimous decision at UFC 318 in July 2025W – Santiago Ponzinibbio via third-round KO at UFC Des Moines in May 2025W – Alex Morono via split decision at UFC Vegas 98 in October 2024L – Kelvin Gastelum via unanimous decision at UFC Riyadh in June 2024L – Ian Machado Garry via first-round KO at UFC Charlotte in May 2023Rodriguez used whatever he could to keep on training, enlisting the help of a cellmate to do pad workGetty“He had been a boxer before, knew how to hold pads, and I ended up pretty much spending this whole time in a boxing fight camp.“I remember I even made a makeshift double-end bag. I got a bunch of plastic bags, made it really tight so it was hard, and threw it in a sock.“I was able to buy a bungee cord from the guards, set that up, and I made a heavy bag with a big gallon bottle of water.“Whenever we went to the yard, I would spend the whole time running, and I was just trying to do everything I could to try and stay in shape.”Following his release, Rodriguez shared several training videos he captured from inside prison.The Californian said he was ‘getting pretty shredded’ but was shocked to learn how malnourished he was when he got out, adding that he looks like a completely different person now.UFC ScheduleFor all the upcoming fights and results this year, check out talkSPORT.com’s UFC schedule.Rodriguez, who only started his professional MMA career in his late 20s, has since been working incredibly hard to return to full fitness.Although he faces an overwhelmingly tough challenge in Medic at the top of the UFC’s Fight Night card in Serbia, ‘D-Rod’ still holds ambitions to fight for gold.Also on the Belgrade show, Ante Delija takes on Johnny Walker and Aleksandar Rakic faces Marcin Tybura, both in the heavyweight division.