Yair Rodriguez credits a friend for setting up the meeting that got him back into the UFC.
One of the stranger MMA stories over the last few weeks involved the UFC releasing one of their top featherweight prospects, seemingly out of nowhere. Yair Rodriguez, who had gone 6-1 in his first seven UFC fights with the only loss coming to Frankie Edgar, seemed to have a disagreement with the promotion about who he was going to fight later this summer and where it was going to be. That isn’t unusual for fighters and the UFC.
It got weird when they just cut him though, then threw him under the bus on the way out.
It seems that the 25-year-old Mexican fighter received some offers from other promotions in the meantime (one of which was quickly rescinded), and he was going to move on with his career. Then, just as quickly, things did a 180 – he was back in the UFC and fighting Zabit Magomedsharipov at UFC 228.
To clear things up, Rodriguez issued a statement regarding the comeback on Instagram, crediting a mutual friend of matchmaker Sean Shelby for getting them in the same room to sort out their differences:
“I address to all my fans, friends and family for always been supportive of my career. As well I’ll like to thank all of those companies showing interest on my persona and work. – Sean Shelby and I have a friend in common, Mario Delgado, he was the connection between us. He set up a meeting between Sean & I, where we had a friendly conversation during lunch on Friday. We got into the interview realization that what happened was a big miscommunication and bad timing.
After the conversation I’m happy to know that the UFC & I are in the best terms ever and now I’m back in track to chase my dream of become a UFC champion.
Zabit Magomedsharipov, see you September 8th in Las Vegas .
Respectfully: Yair Rodriguez.
Viva Mexico”
Rodriguez (10-2, 6-1 UFC) won the first Ultimate Fighter Latin America, and has picked up four performance bonuses in his last six fights.