At the age of 24, Yair Rodriguez fought two former champions back-to-back.
The featherweight fighter from Chihuahua, Mexico arrived to the UFC earlier than most, earning a contract at 22 from ‘The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America’ season 1. By the time he was 23, Rodriguez was already headlining his own events.
Yair Rodriguez improved to 5-0 in the UFC and to #10 in the world with a main event win over Alex Caceres.
The following year, Rodriguez would be matched up against UFC Hall-of-Famer, former UFC Lightweight Champion BJ Penn on Jan. 15, 2017. It was Penn’s return fight after nearly three years away.
Penn had retired in 2014 following a TKO loss to Frankie Edgar. However, Penn insisted on continuing his career, this time at featherweight.
Penn entered the Rodriguez coming off three-straight losses to Nick Diaz, Rory MacDonald and Edgar, not having won since 2010.
Yair Rodriguez battered BJ Penn in one of the most lopsided UFC fights of all time
14 years younger (and a sizable betting favorite), Rodriguez boasted a significant speed advantage in his fight with BJ Penn. It wasn’t long before Penn was caught by Rodriguez’s kicks and a lot of them.
The Taekwondo fighter rocked Penn with a headkick two minutes into their fight, things only getting worse for Penn from there.
Rodriguez effectively mixed in kicks to the body, head, and legs, chipping away at the lightweight legend. A striking clinic from the Mexican and not much retaliation from the 38-year-old Penn.
Round 2 would be all she wrote with Rodriguez starting out fast, landing a beautiful front kick to the face and a right jab to follow it up. Penn went down but he surprisingly wasn’t out.
Rodriguez swarmed with ground and pound strikes, beating on the head of Penn like a drum. The grounded Penn kept on moving, grimacing in pain as he tried to survive.
Rodriguez poured on three-dozen or so strikes before the referee finally stopped the contest.
In significant strike totals, Rodriguez had Penn beat 55 to 4.
Yair Rodriguez earned shot at Frankie Edgar with performance
The main event victory brought Yair Rodriguez’s UFC record up to 6-0, earning the contender a shot at someone higher up – that being Frankie Edgar, another former UFC Lightweight Champion and a former rival of BJ Penn’s.
Unfortunately for the 24-year-old, the stylistic matchup was too much too soon as Edgar utilized his wrestling to shut down the flashy striker for a doctor’s stoppage TKO at UFC 211.
It was a massive learning experience for Rodriguez, who eventually won to win interim gold in 2023.
Outside of his last fight against Brian Ortega, Yair Rodriguez has only lost to former champions in the UFC such as Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway.
Currently ranked #5 in the world, Rodriguez defends his ranking against former two-division Bellator Champion Patricio Pitbull at UFC 314, welcoming him to the Octagon.
