Yair Rodriguez gave Patricio Pitbull a difficult welcome to the UFC.
The former UFC actual champion exceeded and finally overwhelmed the longtime pillar of Bellator on Saturday at UFC 314Giving Rodriguez (20-5, 1 NC) a victory for unanimous and spoiled the highly anticipated beginnings of Pitbull octagon at the Kaseya Center in Miami.
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In the end, the three judges marked a clean scanning for Rodriguez, 30-27.
Subsequently, Rodriguez called to fight the winner of the main UFC 314 event, which features Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes fighting for the vacant UFC featherweight.
“I knew he was going to be hard,” said Rodriguez after Pitbull's fight. “Honestly, I imagined it in my head a little different. I wanted to finish it in the first round, I was preparing for that. I had good techniques prepared for that, but the guy is good, he has all the experience in the world.
“All the respect of Patricio Pitbull and his new trip here at the UFC. I only wish him the best, but now it is time to focus on what is following. And the next step, (executive of the UFC) Campbell, we talked on the phone, he promised me, he said:” If you win your next fight, the shooting is the next.
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“Let's do Mexico, September, Guadalajara – I want to fight for a title there. Whoever wins tonight, I want to fight this guy in Mexico.”
Rodriguez, 32, launched Pitbull, 37, in a volume striking the opening horn, using its length and a range of kicks, body and legs to separate Pitbull (36-8) from a distance and keep Brazilian guess what was going to happen. Rodriguez won in confidence when the fight was progressing and even did its best job in the third round, dropping Pitbull with a huge connection and the fighter with strikes in order to finish.
Pitbull played in bad position, but finally landed only 17 important strikes at the 70 of Rodriguez and never really left first speed throughout the 15 -minute affair.
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The victory marks the first of Rodriguez since February 2023 and puts it on the rebound after loss of arrest consecutive to the hands of Volkanovski and Brian Ortega.
Pitbull is the most decorated fighter in Bellator's history and is generally considered to be the Bellator goat. Former champion with two divisions and triple featherweight champion of Bellator, Pitbull has accumulated nine successful defending defenses through his many Reigns and left Bellator as owner of promotional records for the most victories (24), fights (30), title fights (18) and title victories (15) in organizational history, among others. Its long -awaited beginnings in UFC came after a very published drop with the PFL after the acquisition of Bellator by promotion at the end of 2023.
Despite this war distinction, Pitbull has now lost three of its last four fights.
Cut the complete results of the UFC 314, the reflections and the round cover here.
