UFC’s Irwin Rivera was mentally ‘completely broke’ and wasn’t himself in days before allegedly trying to kill sisters
IRWIN RIVERA wasn’t ‘himself’ and was ‘completely broke’ in the days before he allegedly stabbed his two sisters.
The UFC bantamweight was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of his siblings on Thursday after he allegedly stabbed them while they were sleeping in the spare room of his Florida home.
Rivera, 31, fled the scene of the crime and reportedly told the Boynton Beach Police Department that a ‘higher power’ told him to carry out the alleged attack.
And in a statement on Facebook, his sister Lezlye revealed the former Titan FC 135lb champion had been exhibiting some worrying behaviour before the alleged incident.
She wrote: “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 [sic] 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!”
Lezlye and her sister Kelly suffered wounds to their arms, head and back but are in a stable condition in hospital.
Lezlye added: “Me and kelz are fine [and] well so we just wanna clear the air [and] let it be known that this is not about us!
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“We love our brother to the fullest and anyone that knows us [and] our family knows exactly how much we all LOVE and mean to each other and knows just how close we as a family are, all we wish is for him to get the professional mental help he so desperately needs.”
According to the BBPD’s incident report, Rivera admitted to stabbing his sisters with a ‘brass knuckle knife’ after being taken into custody.
The Mexican is also alleged to have said: “I killed my sisters.”
The UFC have launched an investigation into the incident and will not be offering Rivera a fight at this time.
A GoFundMe page has been set up by a friend of the bantamweight in order to raise funds to help out the family.
The fund hopes to raise £22,300 ($30,000) for the Rivera family during this difficult time.