Yair Rodriguez has reportedly been cut by the UFC for refusing to take a fight.
Rodriguez was riding the crest of a wave and was considered the big hope of Mexican MMA until he was heavily beaten by Frankie Edgar in May 2017.
The UFC had tried to organise a fight between Rodriguez and Zabit Magomedsharipov for August at Barclays Centre and there were reports thus fight was a done deal however Rodriguez tweeted ‘#fakenews’.
Rodriguez has also reportedly turned down a fight with number 7 ranked Ricardo Lamas.
The LA Times are reporting Dana White has had enough and has sent a letter informing Rodriguez of the UFC decision.
“The guy’s off a year, rejects a fight with Lamas and then doesn’t want to fight a guy below him in the rankings?” White said Thursday night. “He can go somewhere else. We have no use for him.
“He calls that fight fake news. This is real news.”
Rodriguez defeated BJ Penn in January 2017 in a one sided fight and big things were predicted for him. That is until he ran into Frankie Edgar.
At 25, Rodriguez will not be short of offers however have the UFC been fair to him?
The @latimes has learned that Yair Rodriguez has been cut from by the UFC for refusing to take the Aug. 4 Staples Center PPV fight against Zabit Magomedsharipov.
— Lance Pugmire (@pugboxing) May 11, 2018
Told by @danawhite that if a fighter like Rodriguez turns down both Ricardo Lamas and Magomedsharipov, in what should have been a compelling battle, after taking a year off, he can take his act elsewhere.
— Lance Pugmire (@pugboxing) May 11, 2018
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40 Responses
Frankie ruined him
Go to Bellator, get some experience and wins and come back to UFC when you ready for the tough competition.
Pullouts has no place anywhere in the fight business.
No judgment
I liked this guy but if your not a champ or a number 1 seed you don’t have the right to pick and choose fights and if he thought he was that good he would take any fight we need more fighter like cowboy cerrone ??✌?
Two words…… Conor McGregor
Yet dana will let mcgregor take 2 years off go to boxing trash a bus cause injury to fighters fuck a ufc ppv event up but get rid of someone for this ??♂️
Their actions are irrelevant, don’t get me wrong I was a big yair Rodriguez fan but he doesn’t sell out entire arenas just to see him fight where as conor does, yes his behaviour is appalling but from the UFCs point of view he can still make them millions of dollars every time he fights also it hasn’t been 2 years his last fight was in november 2016 and a champion has the right not to fight up to 18 months according to ufc rules so he had every right not to fight an just wait for a big money fight its the fact he said hes not fighting again until September this year which would of made it over 18 months therefore they had no choice but to strip him as for his featherweight title boxers are aloud to jump weight divisions and keep their titles so don’t see why conor was stripped so quickly, I personally think Dana has no clue what to do sometimes so just gets pressured by the brands owners into stupid decisions but back to the point of yair would you keep a fighter on your cards who doesn’t really make you much money and doesn’t want to fight??
How much money did Yair’s last fight draw? I’m guessing it couldn’t fill a whisky bottle.
???WTF???