Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is close to finalizing a deal that will see top Featherweight contenders Yair Rodriguez and Zabit Magomedsharipov throw down at an upcoming event on August 29, 2020, likely inside UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
That’s according to Magomedsharipov’s manager, Rizvan Magomedov, who confirmed the news in an interview with Russian news site Tass (via Sherdog).
Yair and Zabit were initially set to throw down at UFC 227 back in 2018 before everything went down the gutter. A few days after the fight was announced, Dana White dropped a bombshell by revealing he had cut Yair for allegedly refusing to fight Zabit.
According to “El Pantera,” that was the furthest thing from the truth, as he claims he repeatedly asked the promotion for a Top 10 opponent instead of Zabit, which he didn’t get at the time.
A few weeks later, UFC re-signed Yair and booked him against Zabit once again, this time for UFC 228. A month after the fight was signed, Rodriguez bowed out of the fight with an injury, which brings us to present date.
Since their original proposed date, Rodriguez has collected a knockout win over Chan Sung Jung and a unanimous decision victory over Jeremy Stephens. Zabit, meanwhile, has three straight wins over Brandon Davis, Jeremy Stephens and Calvin Kattar.
The Fight Night event is set to be headlined by a Light Heavyweight bout between Anthony Smith and Aleksandar Rakic.