At times, Jerome Rivera has bent – but he’s never broken.
Rivera (9-2 MMA) has encountered high highs and low lows. But it’s led him to where he is today – on the UFC’s doorstep. There have been close calls, but every time Rivera has sniffed a UFC deal, he’s come up short – not in effort, but in the outcome.
Growing up, Rivera’s upbringing wasn’t bad. While other New Mexico neighborhoods battled severe crime, Rivera largely avoided encountering such lifestyles. Instead, his area inspired him – especially because of its MMA culture and fighters like Diego Sanchez.
After a youth wrestling career, Rivera began training MMA. A skinny kid, Rivera proved it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but rather the size of the fight in the dog. Rivera’s scrappy attitude translated perfectly to mixed martial arts.
Rattling off victories, Rivera started off his career at 5-0. Things were going well. Unofficially one fight away from a UFC deal, Rivera’s luck took a turn for the worse outside the cage.
On the UFC’s doorstep, Rivera anticipated his highest-profile fight offer to date. Before the fight took place, however, adversity reared its head.
Rivera, 21, was arrested for DWI.
“It was terrible,” Rivera told MMA Junkie. “I felt stupid. I felt dumb. I hit a dark place. I sprained my ankle right before that DWI. I was in jail coming off a pretty bad ankle sprain.”
Shortly after spending nearly two days locked up, Rivera received the offer he anticipated – the chance to fight Roberto Sanchez for the vacant flyweight title at LFA 14. It was a huge opportunity.
Fast forward.
In mid-2017, Rivera sat in a jail cell, fresh off a defeat to Sanchez, which for the time being, derailed his UFC dream. Shortly after his third-round armbar submission loss, Rivera was arrested for not having an interlock license.
Rivera had reached a new low. In an instant, Rivera went from an undefeated fighter destined for the highest level of MMA, to some guy who was banged up, sitting in a jail cell.
Life came fast – too fast, Rivera admits. Soul-searching was necessary.
“At that point, I was at a time where I knew I needed to change my life around or I was going to go into a dark place and probably would turn out to be a person I didn’t feel good about being,” Rivera said.
“… As if dealing with that first loss of my career wasn’t hard enough, a week later I’m sitting inside a jail cell. I’m just sitting there like, ‘(Expletive), this is rock bottom. You’re supposed to be getting ready for a UFC fight and doing all these things and making all this money. Now, you’re sitting here in a jail cell because you’re a dumbass. You should have gotten your interlock license and done all this stuff sooner.’”
To make matters worse, Rivera started to hear his doubters’ voices. Even some people close to him were counting him out and writing him off.
“Mentally, I was a little bit defeated,” Rivera said. “But the same thing: I just kept that chip on my shoulder like everybody was doubting me. Nobody believes in me and they think I’m going to stop.”
It was at that point Rivera received a kickstart, but not from a family member or a friend. It was from the person he trusted most – himself. Thinking of his fiancee, and his first baby on the way, Rivera picked himself up by his bootstraps and reentered competition.
Matched up with Brandon Royval, Rivera had a chance at redemption. After months of mental and physical rebuild, he was back – attempting to change his life for the better.
The fight lasted only 40 seconds. In an early exchange, Royval caught a kick and pushed Rivera backward. Rivera extended his arm to catch his balance. The two fighters crashed into the fence.
Pop!
Rivera circled out to reset, but something wasn’t right.
“I swear I felt like I had an out-of-body experience,” Rivera said. “I could see myself get ran back into the fence. Then, I just remembered right when my hand touched that fence. Immediately, I heard a loud pop, ‘Boom.’ I could not feel my arm, instantly. I felt like I was screaming in my head like, ‘Dude, your arm is broken. Your arm is broken.’
“I took that step off and I wanted to try to hit him with it – like, a spinning back elbow or something. I just felt my arm slow motion swing. I looked down and saw my pinky where my thumb is supposed to be. I was just like, ‘Holy (expletive).’ That’s when I went and kind of told the ref to get me out of there.”
Image via LFA
On national television, Rivera’s arm flopped around in one of the most grotesque injuries in mainstream MMA history. After everything he went through, another layer of adversity revealed itself. Rivera instantly went viral.
“I was expecting to go to the UFC,” Rivera said. “I had my daughter on the way. It was just crushing for me mentally from ‘About to get signed to the UFC again’ to ‘All of a sudden, you have to go back home and get surgery – and you can’t work for eight weeks and you have your daughter on the way and all this stuff.’”
Image via Jerome Rivera
Rivera came face-to-face with his demons but fought back. Tommy John surgery was in the cards for him, yet he persevered through it and its recovery. His injury and its gruesomeness only catalyzed his doubters, which in turn catalyzed Rivera.
“I realized the hard way that the world doesn’t stop turning for anybody,” Rivera said. “If I were to sit there and stay depressed and quit and give up on everything, the world wasn’t going to stop turning for me. Eventually, I was going to fall into a really bad place. I knew I just had to pick back up and set an example for everybody around me – to show my fiancee and everybody that wasn’t going to break me.
“I just used that chip on my shoulder. I just said in my head that everybody was doubting me. Everybody thought that was the end of my career and that I was never going to come back. To them, it was silly at this point to continue. A lot of people – everybody I asked – thought I was done for. … I was just super motivated to prove everybody wrong.”
In his next two fights, Rivera went 2-0. Fueled by an offered rematch against Brandon Royval that was offered twice but never came to fruition, Rivera was extra motivated to improve his game.
The wins punched his ticket to official “one-fight-away” status. Earlier this year, Rivera was offered a slot on Dana White’s Contender Series. After a pandemic delay, Rivera will finally carry out the opportunity against Luis Rodriguez (11-1 MMA) on Tuesday.
With an impressive performance, Rivera could earn a UFC contract – and in the process, prove that sometimes the ends justify the means.
“It would just be a dream come true,” Rivera said. “It would just really feel like all this hard work, all those hours spent in the gym, all the hours away from my family and friends, it would just give me that sense of accomplishment. Like, ‘OK, this was all for a good reason.’ Even if I don’t get to the UFC, I told everybody, like, if this is my last fight on (Tuesday), I’m just very thankful for this.
“… I’ve learned so many lessons through this sport. Win, lose, or draw. Those lessons have made me the man I am today. I believe I’m a very strong person because of this martial arts journey. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
DWCS 27 takes place Tuesday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The event streams on ESPN+.
Never broken: How Jerome Rivera defeated adversity's best attempts to derail his DWCS opportunity