Christian Rodriguez hands Cameron Saaiman first career setback at UFC Vegas 81

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, October 14, 2023, for UFC Vegas 81, going down live from the UFC Apex in Enterprise, Nevada.

Headlining the event is a featherweight bout between no. 11 ranked Sodiq Yusuff (13-2) and no. 13 ranked Edson Barboza (23-11).

Co-headlining the event is a flyweight contest between no. 9 ranked former title challenger Jennifer Maia (21-9-1) and no. 11 ranked Viviane Araujo (11-5).

Opening up the main card tonight was a bantamweight affair between 22-year-old South African prodigy Cameron Saaiman (9-1) and Christian Rodriguez (10-1).

Saaimain came into the bout having gone a perfect 3-0 thus far into his UFC tenure, while Rodriguez came in having gone 2-1 through his first three promotional bouts, defeating 18-year-old stud Raul Rosas Jr in his latest appearance.

Continue reading to see how our UFC Vegas 81 main card opener went down:

Official Result: Christian Rodriguez def. Cameron Saaiman via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Round one between these two was incredibly competitive. Saaiman was fully locked into an anaconda choke about 90 seconds in, before escaping and attempting one of his own. Rodriguez easily defends it and they’re back to striking range where each lands a wide array of punches and kicks at range.

Saaiman tries hard for the takedown early in the second, eventually getting locked into another anaconda choke. He shrugs it off by rolling, the same way he did in the opening round, and ends up taking Rodriguez’ back in a scramble. Saaiman fails to put the body triangle in however, and Rodriguez escapes before taking his back, immediately sinking the body triangle in.

It appears Saaiman is the fresher party of the two in the third and final round, though Rodriguez still landed a number of good strikes of his own. Saaiman lands a lot of punch combinations as well as good round kicks to the body and legs, while Rodriguez landed good punches and great knees up the middle.

Christian Rodriguez sets back his second-straight undefeated young stud here tonight at UFC Vegas 81.

If you enjoyed this piece, feel free to share it on social media!

Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

See Full Bio