Yair Rodríguez explains his departure from the UFC

One week after the UFC announced that Mexican fighter and winner of the inaugural featherweight season of The Ultimate Fighter Latinoamérica, Yair Rodríguez, was no longer part of the promotion's roster, 'El Pantera' spoke with Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com about the reasons behind his departure from the company.

Dana White, president of the UFC, stated to the LA Times that the reason for the cut was that Rodríguez did not accept a fight with Ricardo Lamas and showed no interest in facing a non-ranked fighter, but the Chihuahua native gave his version:

"I accepted a fight with Josh Emmett in February, but he didn't take the fight and they put him against Jeremy Stephens. I spoke with Sean Shelby (matchmaker) about future opponents and told him that I believed I deserved a top 10 because of what I've already shown, with a 6-1 record."

Rodríguez recounts that he accepted the fight with Lamas and even offered himself for other matchups, but the company did not allow him to take them: "Frankie Edgar beat me and had the opportunity to fight Max Holloway. When Frankie got injured, I told them I could replace him, but they didn't let me because they wanted José Aldo. I agreed to the fight with Ricardo Lamas, but he preferred one with Misrad Bektic."

"The fight with Zabit Magomedsharipov started to make sense to me. They wanted us to fight in Los Angeles, California, and I said I would accept if they paid me more because I deserved to fight a ranked opponent." He mentioned that if he didn't receive a bigger payment, then he would like to be on the Russia card, but the promotion also didn't allow it.

"I saw the potential in that fight, and that's why I wanted to charge more and that was the problem. Not because I didn't want to fight or was afraid, but because I wanted to beat him in his own house. The UFC didn't let me face him in Russia, and I didn't want to take the fight in Los Angeles, and that's what happened," he said, and assured that he has evidence that he accepted the fights, but he won't show them.

When rumors of the matchup reached social media, Rodríguez posted a message on his Twitter account with the hashtag "Fake News," referring to the fight. Then his firing was announced, and White did the same with the message "Real News," regarding which the fighter expressed: "I don't care what Dana says, it was fake."

In addition, he argued that among the names he gave to the company for possible opponents was Chan Sung Jung, but he was not yet cleared by doctors for a fight.

"Things didn't go well with the UFC, but that doesn't mean I'm not grateful to the company," he finally sent a thanks to his Mexican fans and said he will soon announce the direction his career will take.