“El Pantera” can’t even remember the flying knee he threw in round two after a heavy punch from “CC0” in the first left him on auto-pilot.
Yair Rodriguez had a great performance at UFC 284 this past weekend (Sat., Feb.11, 2023) in Perth, Australia, stopping Josh Emmett with a triangle choke in the second round to win UFC’s interim Featherweight title (watch highlights). But, it wasn’t as easy as it looked. According to “El Pantera,” Emmett hit him so hard in the first round he doesn’t remember the rest of the fight.
“Josh Emmett is as tough as they come,” Rodriguez said during UFC 284’s post-fight press conference. “He landed a punch in the first round, and I went into automatic mode. I don’t remember much after that. I was just fighting. Somebody told me after the fight that I landed a flying knee. I was like, ‘Did I?’ I just remember the moment when I adjusting the triangle.”
Funny enough, we have the interview where Rodriguez was told about the flying knee by UFC backstage reporter, McKenzie Pavacich.
“So, I don’t remember how I really landed into the floor in the second round,” Rodriguez admitted.
“Flying knee?” Pavacich prompted.
“Ah yeah, that’s true! Yeah,” Rodriguez said. “So, I try the flying knee, but he was able to push, that always happens to me I need to make some adjustments. I went to the floor and then when I was on the floor I was able to connect pretty good elbows, that’s why I’m all inflamed … I was able to connect the triangle, I was able to make the the little adjustments to get me to finish the triangle.
“I did pretty well, I guess, you know, I got the submission submission win and I turned the fight around,” Rodriguez concluded. “In the first round he connected on me pretty hard, I was almost out in the first round. And being able to come back from that, it just gave me a lot of pride.”
This is just more evidence that Emmett has that God-power in his fists, and how close he came to winning the fight. Meanwhile, Rodriguez gets to move forward as champion with faith in his auto-pilot, which carried him forward through several minutes of fighting with an impressive variety of strikes and attacks.
What’s next for the new interim champion is still unclear.
Alexander Volkanovski sounds like he’s in no rush to return to the 145-pound division. He’s currently campaigning for an immediate rematch against Islam Makhachev at 155 pounds. That leaves “El Pantera” with some time to wait and recover or have an interim title defense. We’ll keep you in the loop as soon as we know what’s next.
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