ELMONT, N.Y. – Yair Rodriguez’s latest UFC win came under unexpected circumstances.
The featherweight contender got his hand raised in the UFC on ESPN 3 main event after opponent Brian Ortega suffered a shoulder injury in the first round.
With about a minute remaining in the opening frame, Ortega (15-3 MMA, 7-3 UFC) popped his shoulder while escaping an armbar from Rodriguez (14-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC). It was an unfortunate and bizarre situation that no one saw coming.
“When I went to the floor, I went for the armbar, and I was trapping him really hard, trying to push him away to go for the armbar in the bottom,” Rodriguez said at the post-fight news conference at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y. “I think at the moment when he was trying to get the arm out from there, I think I saw him doing a face, so something happened.
“He went to the floor, he grabbed his shoulder, and I stopped fighting. I realized something was going on, so I let him and I stopped fighting. I asked him, ‘Hey, what’s going on? What happened?’ And he was like, ‘Oh my shoulder, my shoulder.’ So I stopped, and that’s it.”
Despite the unfortunate ending to the fight, Rodriguez thinks his performance was solid for the little time the fight lasted.
“I think I was doing really well,” Rodriguez said. “I connected with a couple of solid jabs. I think I connected with a good right hand a couple of times, an overhand, and like a cross, and I kind of saw him wobbling. I hit him with a couple of good low kicks, high kicks.”
As far as what’s next, the Mexican standout says he’s in full disposal to do whatever the UFC deems fit for the division.
“The ideal fight would be (champion Alexander) Volkanovski, but he’s out, and I guess whatever Dana (White) says.”
