Yair Rodriguez vs Josh Emmett interim featherweight title bout co-mains Makhachev vs Volkanovski at UFC 284

It appears no. 5 ranked UFC featherweight contender Josh Emmett (18-2) won’t be getting passed up for a title shot after all, as it’s just been announced that he’ll be facing no. 2 ranked Yair Rodriguez (14-3) for the interim UFC featherweight championship early next year.

This championship bout is to go down on February 12, 2023, live from the RAC Arena in Perth, Australia, and it is to be the co-main event; the headliner being for the UFC lightweight championship as current champion Islam Makhachev aims to make the first defense of his newly claimed title against UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski in a champion versus champion super fight.

Makhachev heads into the bout with a record of 23-1 (12-1 UFC) on an 11-fight win streak, while Volkanovski goes in with a record of 25-1 (12-0 UFC) on a 22-fight win streak.

This of course would be the reason for Rodriguez and Emmett to fight for the interim title, the current featherweight champions next move is chasing greatness in a division above.

Rodriguez is coming off a TKO (injury) victory over former two-time title challenger Brian Ortega, and he’s 3-1 (1 NC) over his last five, avenging the no contest and winning two of five rounds against former champion Max Holloway in the single fight he lost.

Emmett on the other hand comes into the bout on a five-fight win streak, having gone 7-1 thus far since moving down to 145 lbs.

Both of these talents are dangerous strikers with serious knockout power; Rodriguez’ coming from his wide variety of strikes stemming from his Taekwondo background, and Emmett being a heavy-handed boxer that strikes very well whilst switching stances.

It’s a shame no. 4 ranked Arnold Allen (19-1) is being passed up, he’s honestly more deserving that Rodriguez at this point, being 10-0 inside the octagon and coming off a pair of back-to-back finishes. But, Allen is still only 28 years of age, he has time.

Who do you see winning the interim championship and booking a fight with Volkanovski in the near future?

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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!

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