‘I’ll Fight Him In His Backyard’

Yair Rodriguez is not a fan of the new featherweight world champion, Ilia Topuria.

Rodriguez — who came up short of trading in his interim title for undisputed gold against Alexander Volkanovski in July — sounded just a little bit bitter when asked about Topuria’s title-winning performance against ‘The Great’ during his appearance at the UFC Mexico City media event on Wednesday.

“He did it,” Rodriguez said. “He said he was going to do it and he did it. I don’t have much to say about that.

“I would love to f*ck him up,” he continued. “I don’t want to fight him, I want to f*ck him up. There’s a f*cking big difference in that. Just to make that clear. Anywhere I f*cking see him, I will f*ck him up. F*ck this b*tch. I don’t f*cking like him.”

Yair Rodriguez believes the uFC Mexico city co-main event will produce topuria’s first title challenger

Rodriguez will feature in the co-main event this Saturday night when the UFC returns to Mexico City for a fight that could produce Topuria’s first championship challenger. ‘El Pantera’ meets fellow contender Brian Ortega in a rematch of their July 2022 clash. Rodriguez won the bout via a first-round TKO after ‘T-City’ injured his shoulder.

Rodriguez believes that the winner between himself and Ortega will likely move on to fight Topuria later this year.

“I think that is what’s next for us, any of us, whoever wins, the title is next,” Rodriguez said. “F*ck yeah [I’ll go to Spain vs. Topuria]. I’ll fight him in his backyard if he wants.”

Yair Rodriguez enters the bout with a 10-3 record inside the Octagon with one no-contest. He has won three of his last fight bouts, including an interim title victory over Josh Emmett at UFC 284. His two losses came against Volkanovski and former featherweight champion Max ‘Blessed’ Holloway.