‘Something evil took over him’: Family rallies around UFC’s Rivera after stabbing incident that led to attempted murder charges

The family of UFC bantamweight Irwin Rivera has come out in support of the fighter after he was jailed following an incident where he allegedly stabbed his two sisters.

One of the two sisters involved, Lezlye, and his mother Susana Campos have both issued statements following the chilling incident that left both sisters in hospital for treatment on their wounds, with Rivera reportedly telling police officers that he had killed his siblings for "a higher power."

On Friday, both Lezlye and Campos spoke out, with his mother telling Mexican newspaper Milenio that her son had "lost his memory, and something evil took over him a few days ago. His mind was blocked. He wasn’t himself."

Meanwhile, Lezlye issued a lengthy statement in a Facebook post to share her view of the turbulent last few days.

"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!" she wrote.

"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 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.

"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 within the past 24 hours 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!"

The police report into the incident stated that Rivera allegedly attacked his sisters on Thursday night in Delray Beach, leaving them with stab wounds on their heads, arms, faces and backs. The younger sister was also reported to have had two collapsed lungs.

The report also stated that Rivera had admitted to arresting officers that he had "killed" his sisters, and that "he did so because it was his purpose, which he was told to by a higher power."