MIAMI – Yair Rodriguez hopes to show Patricio Freire that the UFC is a different league.
Rodriguez (19-5 MMA, 10-4 UFC) welcomes Freire (36-7 MMA, 0-0 UFC) to the octagon Saturday on the main card of UFC 314 (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) at Kaseya Center.
“Pitbull” had a storied career in Bellator, capturing both the promotion’s featherweight and lightweight titles simultaneously. He can instantly make waves in the UFC’s 145-pound division if he can defeat former interim champ Rodriguez, but “El Pantera” plans on giving him a rude awakening.
“I’m just happy to be the one who is welcoming him to the UFC,” Rodriguez told MMA Junkie and other reporters Wednesday at UFC 314 media day. “I’m going to show him the level that it takes to be in this company for how many ever years, and he’s going to feel it on Saturday.”
Rodriguez is coming off back-to-back losses to Alexander Volkanovski for the featherweight title then Brian Ortega last February. He admits to have been mentally exhausted of training, but is in a much better place now. He vows to show that he’s a changed fighter on Saturday.
“By the end of the last year, I started changing like little bit,” Rodriguez said. “(I) started putting more time into the gym. I started changing my habits a little bit. Right towards by the end of the year, I completely changed everything. I changed my mindset, and I changed the way that I train, the way that I eat, my bad habits.
“I completely erased all the bad things that I was doing, and I changed it for something good. If you ask my body, my body would be really thankful for that because I can actually see the progress – the progress in my body, in my head, in my spirit. Actually, this is the best I’ve ever felt in my life.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 314.
