Breaking: Yair Rodriguez Reconciles With UFC, Will Return Soon
It looks like Dana White’s pressure has worked.
After formerly touted featherweight future star Yair Rodriguez was unceremoniously released from the UFC for reportedly refusing to fight Zabit Magomedsharipov and Ricardo Lamas, that situation has apparently been diffused.
News came from ESPN’s Brett Okamoto this afternoon that Rodriguez has verbally agreed to fight Magomedsharipov and the bout will take place at September’s UFC 228 pay-per-view:
BREAKING: The Yair Rodriguez/UFC situation has apparently done a 180. Rodriguez vs. Zabit Magomedsharipov is now verbally agreed to for UFC 228 in September.
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) June 1, 2018
The report has yet to be confirmed, and the UFC has not announced the fight as of yet. UFC 228 is expected to take place on September 8 in Las Vegas, Nevada, although details are still being awaited in that regard as well.
Rodriguez was one of the UFC’s top rising prospects during his six-fight win streak from 2014-2017, but a match-up against Frankie Edgar in a bout that may have been too soon for the young contender derailed his hype in a big way at last May’s UFC 211, and he hasn’t been seen since.
After supposedly turning down the fights, UFC president Dana White predictably bashed the Mexican striker:
“The guy’s off a year, rejects a fight with Lamas, and then doesn’t want to fight a guy below him in the rankings?” White said at the time. “He can go somewhere else. We have no use for him. He calls that fight fake news. This is real news.”
He’s apparently mended that fence, however, and is headed for a tough match-up. Rodriguez drew some interest on the free-agent market as expected, but rising promotion Combate Americas somewhat surprisingly withdrew a lucrative offer to him that reportedly would have paid him more than he was making in the UFC.
That doesn’t matter anymore, and “El Pantera” will return to arguably the second toughest fight of his UFC tenure. Magomedsharipov is 3-0 under the UFC banner with three post-fight bonuses under his belt, the most recent being his ‘Fight of the Year’ candidate opposite Kyle Bochniak.
He’s currently on an 11-fight win streak and has taken over Rodriguez’ spot as the most hyped up-and-comer at 145 pounds, making the match-up a battle for that title of sorts.
