Former UFC star Phil Baroni has spent years in a Mexican prison, with friends and family now claiming that he has yet to receive a fair trial or a definitive resolution in the case.
Baroni was arrested in Mexico in January 2023 after his girlfriend Paola passed away in the coastal community of San Francisco, commonly known as San Pancho. Mexican authorities subsequently pursued the case as aggravated femicide. Recent reporting indicates that his legal proceedings have continued into 2026.
Friends and relatives of the former MMA star discussed the case on the Yamatodamashii Channel podcast hosted by MMA legend Enson Inoue. During the conversation, Baroni’s sister Kristy and her husband Joe have separately spoken extensively about their concerns over the case.
According to those close to Baroni, the former star has been held in Mexican custody for approximately three years without a trial date being scheduled. They argue that a number of potentially important pieces of evidence have either been overlooked, misrepresented or lost during the legal process.
Kristy and Joe say they have reviewed autopsy reports, DNA reports, photographs and other material related to the case. One of their central claims is that investigators found no DNA evidence connecting Baroni to the crime scene.
“There was no DNA in the room. Zero, I have the report. None,” Joe stated.
The couple also claims the room where the incident occurred was cleaned and rented to new guests the following day.
“That room was cleaned and in use the next day. There was no investigation,” Kristy alleged.
According to the family, this raises questions about whether the location was properly preserved as a crime scene.
They also claim witnesses heard someone speaking Spanish inside the room around the time of the incident and using a derogatory term to refer to the woman. Kristy stressed that her brother does not speak Spanish.
According to her account, Baroni had left the room to go to a store and was captured on surveillance footage doing so. She said he returned to discover the woman deceased and immediately sought help from a taxi driver who was still outside.
One of the most frequently reported details surrounding the case is the claim that Baroni told authorities or his former manager that his girlfriend suffered a fatal injury after falling and hitting her head in the shower.
Baroni’s family strongly disputes that account.
Kristy claimed, “The police came and there was no interpreter, nothing. So, supposedly there’s this reporter who published that story, the shower story. My brother never said it. It was It’s not even in any documents in the court. No lawyers have used it. It was never said.”
She also disputed reports that Baroni told former manager Ken Pavia about the incident.
“Ken Pavia has never even spoken to my brother in person,” she said.
Recent reporting has likewise noted that authorities disputed Baroni’s initial account of the woman’s injuries and subsequently pursued aggravated femicide charges. A judge ordered Baroni to face the criminal process, but publicly available reporting does not show a final conviction or sentence.
Kristy and Joe also claim that important documentation surrounding the investigation has disappeared.
According to Kristy, three handwritten police reports were initially produced before allegedly being replaced by a single typed report. “Where are the other reports?” she asked.
She claimed one of the original reports stated that Baroni left the room, returned and called for help, while another allegedly stated that someone else called for assistance. The family also claims surveillance footage from the hotel disappeared during the legal proceedings.
“When they went to court, the camera footage is missing,” Joe said. “I find that to be very odd.”
On another podcast episode, Baroni’s longtime friends including Prominent MMA promoter Rich Chou, have also challenged the image of him presented in a Vice documentary examining the case.
Inoue said Baroni’s sister had told him that the athlete was not provided what she considered adequate legal assistance or interpretation during the process.
“He wasn’t given a fair lawyer. He didn’t get a translator,” Inoue stated. “The whole process that he went through was hard to even make a decision on that. There’s witnesses that say that he didn’t do it, but those witnesses were never brought out.”
Inoue also rejected some of the portrayals of Baroni’s personality in the Vice documentary.
“He had a huge heart,” Inoue said. “He sees the old lady standing up in the train, he’ll offer her a seat. I saw that side of Phil, and I believe that’s the real side of Phil.”
Chou also expressed disappointment with the way his own interview was used in the Vice documentary. He said producers spent several hours at his home interviewing him about Baroni and their history.
“The stories I shared with you guys talking about our past, how we met, I said all that to them. They were at my house for a few hours,” Chou said.
According to Chou, much of the positive testimony he provided was ultimately absent from the finished documentary.
Kristy made a similar allegation about her own interview. She claimed she spent approximately two hours speaking with the documentary producers and was assured that participating would help Baroni.
“They promised me 100 percent this is going to help him,” she said. “I have emails, I have text messages, I have everything begging me to do it.”
She claimed her lengthy interview was ultimately reduced to only a few seconds in the documentary.
According to Kristy, Baroni remains in a difficult prison environment and speaks with her approximately once a week. She sends money through a Mexican resident who can deliver funds and supplies to him.
She claimed the prison is largely controlled by inmates, including prisoners with cartel connections, and that Baroni has been involved in altercations over theft.
Despite the conditions, Kristy said her brother attempts to reassure her during their conversations. “He cries on the phone and tells me how much he loves me and how much he misses me,” she said.
Kristy said the family has spent more than $30,000 on Mexican attorneys but believes they received little meaningful assistance in return.
“They have taken money from us. They said they were helping. They never did. They never allowed us to have a defense,” she alleged.
The family now says it is reluctant to continue spending money on lawyers without confidence that they are receiving legitimate legal assistance.
Friends of Baroni have also pointed to his decision to contact authorities after discovering his girlfriend unresponsive.
Inoue said this behavior did not fit his understanding of Baroni. “Knowing Phil, if he actually mistakenly ended her life, he wouldn’t have called the cops. He would have ran,” Inoue stated.
However, prosecutors present a significantly different account of the incident. According to sources, Baroni is accused of verbally and physically assaulting his girlfriend and causing 37 injuries. In his statement to authorities, Baroni reportedly admitted the couple argued after he discovered she had slept with another man. He said he then shoved her into the shower against her will causing her to hit her head, before later leaving the room and returning to find her unresponsive.
The court reportedly rejected the idea that the injuries resulted from a single shove, given the number and distribution of injuries found on the victim’s body.
The prosecution also presented testimony about alleged previous abuse. The victim’s sister reportedly testified that she had previously seen injury marks on her sister but that the woman refused to go to authorities because she feared Baroni would react aggressively. Neighbors also testified about what they described as Baroni’s violent temper.
Chou acknowledged that the circumstances are complicated and said he has struggled with conflicting emotions because of the seriousness of the allegations and the loss suffered by the woman’s family.
“I have a daughter,” Chou said. “I have all these different feelings.” He described himself as “heartbroken” by the overall situation.
Kristy and Joe say their immediate objective is to secure better legal assistance for Baroni and ultimately bring him back to the United States for a fair hearing with American legal representation.
They have specifically hoped that UFC President Dana White, who was close to Baroni during his career, might be willing to help. Kristy said she attempted to contact White using old contact information but did not receive a response.
“We need someone like Dana to please help us,” she said. “Not for money, nothing like that, just to be like please, do you know of an attorney or someone here that would be willing to help.”
She suggested that the woman may have been involved in something dangerous against her will and that Baroni could have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. She also believes that the fact that Baroni was an American who did not speak Spanish may have made him an easy suspect.
