What’s going on with Yair Rodriguez?
It’s been some time at this point since Yair Rodriguez last fought, and many of us are left wondering, including the UFC brass, that it’s to no one’s fault but his own. While this may not be entirely true, we all have the right to believe it at this point.
He’s been scheduled three times now to face the No. 3 ranked UFC featherweight contender, Zabit Magomedsharipov, and three times it’s been cancelled.
First, he was slated against Magomedsharipov at UFC 228, a bout Rodriguez withdrew from due to an injury.
He was then scheduled against the Russian talent for UFC Vegas 8 in August, and Rodriguez again pulled out with an injury. This time he specified the injury to be to his ankle.
The UFC then matched the two of them together for UFC 254, and slowly but surely, the match up just faded away. The bout pairing remained on the top of the UFC 254 Wikipedia page in one of the paragraphs describing the event, but not on the fight card.
It just flew under the radar that they weren’t on the card, and unfortunately, it didn’t end up happening, and we weren’t told why. We weren’t even told that the bout was cancelled, the UFC, nor any media source enlightened us of the cancellation.
Now, the Mexican talent has been suspended for six months by USADA for not giving them his whereabouts. They showed up to test him, and he wasn’t there at the said location. This has got many of us wondering, what’s going on with Yair Rodriguez?
It looks like he doesn’t want to fight, or he at least doesn’t want to fight Magomedsharipov.
He’s been very fickle on accepting the match up alone, not to mention his pull outs, and he’s also pulled out of other fights and has turned down a number of others throughout his UFC career.
That could be because of contract issues, it could’ve been he didn’t like the match up(s), he may have actually been unwell at the time. The point is, there have been plenty of these “times”.
Rodriguez is one of the brightest young prospects in the sport, and he’s not 21-years-old anymore, he just turned 28 in October. He’s entering his physical peak, and considering all the stellar performances he’s already had, it’s incredible to wonder how much more he could do, and how much better he could become.
Now, we wait for his suspension to end, which will be mid-2021. The question is, will he want to fight then? Will he accept tough fights and prove himself upon return, or will it just be this same, annoying, hard to deal with young talent?
It wouldn’t be so much of a problem if he wasn’t a top contender, he’s ranked at No. 4 in the UFC’s featherweight division, that means he needs to fight the best. He could become the champion of the weight class, and his potential is just being wasted.
It’s honestly hard seeing the UFC keeping him on their roster with him being this hard to negotiate with.
It seems as if he doesn’t even want to fight, at least not who the UFC has been trying to match him up with. Rodriguez versus Magomedsharipov is a very important fight for the featherweight division, it’s a wonder what his issue is.
We first got to know of Rodriguez on The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America, where he went 2-0 on the show with a submission (triangle choke) and TKO finish, and won his season with a unanimous decision victory, improving his record to 6-1.
Since this, he’s only lost a single time, to former UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar. He was just taken down and pounded on throughout the fight, but he’s had some incredible performances in the other seven bouts.
Yair Rodriguez defeated Dan Hooker via unanimous decision back in 2015, he KO’d Andre Fili with a nasty head kick, and is still the only man to this day to finish Fili with strikes.
He also KO’d Chan Sung Jung with one of the nastiest and most crafty elbows any of us will ever see at 4:59 of round five of their back-and-forth war.
He most recently defeated Jeremy Stephens via unanimous decision, after their first bout, one month prior, ended in a no contest, due to Rodriguez poking Stephens in his eye. This improved his record to 13-2 (1 NC), but the rematch was in October of last year, and he won’t be fighting anytime soon.
Perhaps Bellator would be a better option for him, or Rizin, PFL, ONE Championship, somewhere that’s not in the UFC. He hasn’t been too keen on the UFC for some time now, this isn’t even close to the first issue they’ve had with Rodriguez.
If he asks for his release from the UFC and they grant it to him, he can fight a lot sooner than mid-2021. USADA isn’t run by state athletic commissions, and the UFC is the only promotion that’s implemented them.
The thing is whether or not the UFC would release him before his suspension is up, or make him wait. We suppose time will tell.
It’s unfortunate, he’s such a great fighter. Rodriguez is different, there really isn’t anyone else out there that fights like him, he’s as unique as they come, and he’s only going to continue getting better over the next few years. Where do we see him ending up, what happens next for him?
What’s going on with Yair Rodriguez?
