Yair Rodriguez aims for big show in star fight against Max Holloway

UFC confirmed the fight between No. 1-ranked featherweight former champion Max Holloway and No. 3-ranked Yair Rodriguez in the UFC Fight Night main event on July 17 in Las Vegas. It would be a fight that could define the contender for the belt, but at least for the Mexican, that shouldn’t be a distraction.

The commitment came naturally, with Holloway’s intentions to stay active after defeating Calvin Kattar in January and with ‘Pantera’ as the best option, once the champion Alexander Volkanovski and Brian Ortega will face each other for the title in the second half of the year.

“I saw it as a great opportunity, I have always wanted to face those I consider the best and Max is one of the best in history. For me it’s a unique opportunity, I’m not going into the fight with any other intention than to give my best and show what I’m capable of against one of the best in history,” Rodriguez confessed to ESPN Deportes Digital, hours after formally signing the contract. “The result, it’s the least of it, it doesn’t interest me, I want to go and give a show, that people like, that makes me feel proud and give a war.”

Rodriguez Portillo has a record of 13-2 in MMA and only one loss in UFC, to former champion Frankie Edgar, which left him with a lot of learning.

“In the Frankie fight, I think I was already thinking about what was coming next in case he won, I got ahead of myself and it didn’t do any good. I’m not even thinking ahead, I’m not focused on Max, I’m focused on my training to keep improving and growing gradually to get to my best point for the fight and be able to beat him,” he explained.

The native of Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua recognizes the quality of his opponent and how impressive he looked in the victory over Kattar: “I’m sure he is the best fighter in the history of MMA, there is no doubt, but that doesn’t matter, this is MMA,” he responded to the direct question about the self-proclamation of the former 145 lbs. champion as the best fighter in UFC.

“At this point we are all very complete, you can clearly see what some of us know how to do better, like his punches or my kicks, for example, Khabib’s wrestling, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do other things well. Look how in the fight with Conor it was Khabib who was about to knock him out with a punch and the striker there was supposed to be McGregor,” added Rodriguez.

‘Pantera’ started his camp in Chicago with fight coach Israel Martinez, but he is working mainly on his mental clarity, in order to exploit all his versatility inside the octagon.

“The more pressure I put on myself the less I do things right. For me it’s a big step to take the fight calmly. Creativity is a very important thing, my coaches always ask me to do what I do best, for me it’s like a work of art,” explained Pantera, who owns the latest knockout in UFC history, when he knocked out Chan Sung Jung ‘The Korean Zombie’ at 4:59 of the fifth round in November 2017 with a spinning elbow.

In the same vein, he relates that he took advantage of the 18 months of inactivity, due to injury and a six-month suspension for administrative offenses in USADA, to resolve personal issues: “It has been a stage of much maturation and improve as an athlete, close cycles that I had that were not complete, inside my head, things that I could overcome and feel more complete as a person,” he detailed.

For almost three years, UFC tried to match him with Russian Zabit Magomedsharipov, but he has been removed from the ranking and there are rumors about his premature retirement. It is an issue that the Aztec has already put behind him.

“You don’t see what happened with Zabit, if he’s injured or it has to do something with his religion or whatever is going on, I wish him the best and that he can come back as soon as possible, but now I’m going to face Holloway and nothing else matters. Nothing about what I say or what he says, only what we do in the cage on July 17,” he said.

Rodriguez and Holloway will square off at UFC Apex in Las Vegas, as UFC President Dana White has stated that they have no plans to leave their facility beyond numbered events, though those conditions could change as the states reopening continues.