Alexander Volkanovski stopped Yair Rodriguez in the third round at UFC 290 to defend his featherweight title.
Volkanovski was hoping to return to winning ways after he missed out on the chance to become a two-weight champion in February as he was beaten by Islam Makhachev. Rodriguez was also in action at the same event as he captured the interim featherweight title on that night by impressively tapping out Josh Emmett with a guillotine choke.
The champion wasted no time in taking the fight to the ground as he scored his first takedown in the opening few minutes. Volkanovski was beating Rodriguez up on the ground and he threatened an arm-triangle submission but Rodriguez did well to defend it.
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Rodriguez was bloodied up come the second round as he struggled to come up with an answer for Volkanovski’s wrestling abilities. Referee Herb Dean gave Rodriguez a stern warning before the third round because of repeated fouls such as fence-grabbing and putting his fingers inside Volkanovski’s gloves.
Rodriguez was finally starting to put together some good combinations after being beaten up on the ground for two rounds. Volkanovski countered his rival by stunning him with a right hand as Rodriguez was on shaky legs. 'The Great' followed up with a perfectly-placed knee and body shot before dumping Rodriguez on his back and finishing the fight with ground-and-pound.
Volkanovski said he would be open to a rematch with Makhachev or defending his featherweight belt against top contender Ilia Topuria next. I want that lightweight belt, I'm still coming for that. Whoever is next, Ilia has been running his mouth so if he wants I'll squash him too. I need to get a little bit of surgery on my arm, going through camp was a bit of a struggle but I was always going to turn up here and do my thing. I'll make sure to stay fit during my recovery and I'll be back in here soon," he said.
"Everyone that knows this game, knows how dangerous he [Rodriguez] was. I'm really coming for all those records. I'm pretty close to knocking off a few those and I've got a lot of goals going forward so sky's the limit. There's a few options next, I've got to go back and see what's best."
