UFC bantamweight Casey Kenney has not been seen in action since a 2021 loss to Song Yadong, but he has unfortunately surfaced as part of an alleged domestic violence incident last week.
Footage released by Twitter/X account Parry Punch News on Tuesday captures Esther Reyes, the mother of Kenney’s girlfriend, confronting the fighter, after initially telling the camera, “the last time he hit my daughter, he hit her because she let the dog out. He’s in love with that dog.”
Police had already been on scene prior to the encounter. Attending Kenney’s Phoenix-area home, Casey initially agrees to speak to the mother, before becoming upset that she had contacted the police. “You just had the police come around. I don’t want to talk to you. You lied to the police.”
“Why did you hit her?” Reyes questions, with Kenney replying “wow, wow” before his girlfriend appears, sending the mother into a frenzy. “What the f*ck happened to my daughter?” she cries as the women flee the home.
Later, the women are scene sitting in a vehicle, with Reyes shouting “look what you did to my daughter!” and threatening to pepper spray Kenney, while Kenney paces outside his home alongside his dog.
“How does this motherf*ck get away with this?” she questions on the video, panicked. In a call apparently with 9-1-1 operators, the mother suggests that officers had already responded but been unable to locate her daughter. They return to the scene afterwards, interviewing Kenney’s girlfriend, which her mother also records from a distance.
Phoenix PD replied to a request from Cageside Press seeking information about the incident with a brief statement.
“On July 22, 2024 around 12:15 P.M., officers responded to an unknown trouble call in the area of 2300 W Waltann Lane. Officers located an adult female victim with visible abrasions reporting a domestic violence assault,” the statement read. “The female was treated by paramedics and interviewed by investigators. No contact was made with the suspect at that time. This case is still active.”
Phoenix PD provided a case number; Cageside Press has requested a copy of both bodycam footage and any incident report available.
Kenney (16-4-1) posted a 5-3 record with the UFC from 2019 to 2021, with losses to Merab Dvalishvili, Dominick Cruz, and Yadong. He remains on the promotion’s active roster, per their official website.
The bantamweight previously made headlines after appearing on Sean O’Malley’s podcast (h/t MMA Mania), when asked if he would “smash” Megan Anderson, a former UFC women’s featherweight title challenger. While initially saying “probably not,” Kenney later called the former Invicta champ a a “5 a.m.-er, 4 a.m.-er,” and added “just us two hanging out, like, ‘f*ck it, let’s do it.’”
Kenney later apologized over the comments, on his since-suspended Twitter/X account. “I’m sorry this upset you,” he wrote back in January 2021. “I will be more careful with my words. I was just answering a question and thought it was all a joking matter. I see I was wrong and I’m sorry. Best of luck with training camp and your fight.”
Anderson later revealed in an interview with Ben “The Bane” Davis that the two had crossed paths at the UFC PI, saying that Kenney “f*cking h*t himself and ran the other way.”
