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Yair Rodriguez appears to have little interest in combating Josh Emmett — or anyone else for that matter — for an interim title.
Rodriguez picked up a TKO victory attributable to an damage to Brian Ortega in the principle occasion of UFC Long Island earlier this month. With the unlucky manner the bout ended, most believed {that a} battle between Rodriguez and Emmett as both a title eliminator or an interim championship battle made excellent sense, particularly with present champion Alexander Volkanovski coping with a hand damage suffered in his UFC 276 win over Max Holloway.
Even UFC president Dana White expressed curiosity within the thought, nonetheless Rodriguez appears to haven’t any curiosity in any respect.
“What’s in my thoughts proper now could be combating Alexander Volkanovski, and that’s at all times on my thoughts proper now,” Rodriguez instructed reporters backstage at UFC 277.
“I’m ready for him.”
Another excuse why a battle between Rodriguez and Emmett — a winner of 5 straight, together with a principal occasion choice win over Calvin Kattar at UFC Austin in June — appears to make sense is Volkanovski’s curiosity in transferring as much as problem for the light-weight title, particularly towards the winner of the UFC 280 bout between Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev for the vacant belt.
Even when Volkanovski is about to make the transfer up and put the highest of the division on a pause, Rodriguez says he’s in no hurry.
“No, I’m going to attend for him [even if he moves up to lightweight],” Rodriguez stated. “Hopefully he wins the [155-pound belt] so will probably be an even bigger accomplishment for me every time I get to battle him, and beat him.
“Why [would I fight for an interim] once I’m knocking on the door for the title? It doesn’t make any sense.
“I’m not combating Josh Emmett, I’m combating Volkanovski.”
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