Yair Rodriguez will make his awaited return to the Octagon tomorrow evening (Sat., Nov. 13, 2021) at UFC Vegas 42 live on ESPN+ from inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, when “El Pantera” matches up against former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway in the main event.
This will be the first time Rodriguez is stepping inside of the cage since capturing a decision win over Jeremy Stephens back in Oct. 2019. That fight came one month after an original matchup with Stephens ended in an accidental eye poke. It’s been two years since those back-to-back fights with “Lil Heathen” so Rodriguez will need to impress this weekend to regain some momentum in the featherweight division.
Luckily, fight fans already have some footage of Rodriguez and his conquests at 145 pounds. While the Mexican fighter has produced a worthy 8-1 (1 NC) record since his debut back in 2014 the most memorable outing for Rodriguez came against Chan Sung Jung in a main event clash just over three years ago. “Korean Zombie” did more than enough to outclass Rodriguez over the course of all five rounds, but Rodriguez ended up stopping the featherweight contender with a last-second elbow. It was quite spectacular.
Check it out above courtesy of UFC.
Rodriguez, 29, is a massive betting underdog against Holloway this weekend and rightfully so. Holloway is arguably the best featherweight fighter of all time and is coming off a dominant win over Calvin Katter his last time out. It seems like Rodriguez will have to do something special to capture a victory over “Blessed,” but the above finish is evident that Rodriguez has a knack for producing improbably results.
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Vegas 42 fight card right here, starting with the ESPN+ “Prelims” matches, which are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. ET, then the remaining main card balance on ESPN+ at 4 p.m. ET.