With her brother facing attempted murder charges after stabbing herself and another of his sisters, Lezlye Rivera, UFC bantamweight Irwin Rivera’s sister, has released a statement regarding the incident — and supporting him.
In a post to Facebook, Lezlye Rivera underscored her love for her brother, and went on to explain that over the past weekend, the fighter had not been acting like himself. That included displaying a lack of interest in training, which is what convinced Lezlye to travel to see him.
You can view Lezlye Rivera’s full statement below:
me and kelz are fine n well so we just wanna clear the air n let it be known that this is not about us! We love our brother to the fullest and anyone that knows us n our family knows exactly how much we all LOVE and mean to eachother and knows jst how close we as a family are , all we wish is for him to get the professional mental help he so desperately needs.
This past weekend my brother hasn’t been acting like himself . Not sleeping or talking like himself and completely just losing interest in his training, which we all know is what he lives to do. This concerned me and had me jump on the next airplane ASAP n go check up on him. Unfortunately his mental stage was worse then we could of imagined and before we could help him he completely broke. This is not easy for me or my family but I ask to pleeeeesse keep MY BROTHER in your prayers , pray he can stabilize and come back to us bc sometime withing the past 24hours his mentality has been completely corrupted into something unrecognizable. Again we LOVE OUR BROTHER and are 100% here to support him n try n get him this help he so desperately needs!
Rivera, 31-years old, joined the UFC in 2020 and posted a 1-2 record for the year. He had been scheduled for a bout in March, which for obvious reasons will not be happening as planned. Thursday night, word broke that the athlete had stabbed both his sisters, with an initial booking report showing he had been charged with first degree murder. While that proved inaccurate, the subsequent release of a police report was no less troubling: Rivera told attending officers that he believed he had killed his sisters (Lezlye and Kelly Rivera), and that “he did so because it was his purpose, which was told to him by a higher power.”
Per a subsequent report by MMA Fighting, Palm Beach County court officials have confirmed that Rivera has been placed on an involuntarily for up to 72 hours in a mental health treatment facility, after initially being booked into the Main Detention Center at the Sheriff’s Headquarters Complex in West Palm Beach, Florida. That transfer came following Rivera’s first court appearance Friday.
Rivera’s mother, Susana Campos, also briefly commented on her son’s actions. “My son lost his memory and something bad took hold of him for a few days, his mind was blocked, he was no longer him,” she was quoted as saying by Spanish language website Milenio.
