Rodriguez said he shared a cell with two people in high places, and they looked out for him. He reasoned that everybody loves a fighter and said he was put in one of the best situations he could have been in.

“My first 12 days I was in a six man cell with like 25 people in there. Dudes sleeping on the floor, two men per bunk, and I couldn’t even sleep,” he recalled. “It was just disgusting in there. It’s horrible. Fortunately word got around that I was in there and I got shot up to the VIP section.”

“What happened was I went to court one day, my first court date, and one of the guards recognized me and started asking me for pictures. So all the guards are right there taking pictures. Some of the inmates saw that,” Rodriguez reasoned. He went on to say, “In the back of my mind, I had a sense like, I think this guy’s using me as protection. I’m kind of like his bodyguard or something like that. But I just ran with it.”

When asked what kind of privileges he was given, Rodriguez said he didn’t want to “burn the spot” for people still in the prison. He said those little things go a long way and he was fortunate to have them, although it wasn’t cheap.