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Late yesterday (Tues., Aug. 4, 2020), it was announced that Yair Rodriguez has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled bout against Zabit Magomedsharipov, which was scheduled to go down on Aug. 29, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Naturally the news didn’t please too many people, Zabit included. The scrappy Featherweight was a little dumbfounded with not only the injury, but with the fact the he is very aware that “El Pantera” never signed on the dotted line to begin with.
“It’s funny I signed bout agreement few weeks ago, Yair never did, UFC never announced officially main event,” he wrote on Twitter. “Two options: 1. UFC playing games 2. Yair has no balls.”
The bout was originally set to go down on August 27 in 2018 before it was pulled and Rodriguez was cut from the promotion. After mending fences, UFC and Yair agreed on a deal that would see him face Zabit at UFC 228 the following month. However, that bout was also scratched after Yair pulled out with an injury.
It’s like Khabib vs Ferguson all over again.
That brings us to present date, as Rodriguez has once again been struck down by the injury bug, leaving Magomedsharipov furious and with a lot of questions. Several combatants have offered to step in and fill the void, but UFC has yet to commit to a replacement.