Marc RaimondiESPN Staff Writer Jul 9, 2023 1:10am ET2 minutes read
LAS VEGAS — Yair Rodriguez had his best moment of the fight when he landed a right head grazing kick that knocked Alexander Volkanovski’s head back and then executed a combination including a left that landed flush to Volkanovski’s chin.
Volkanovski nodded in appreciation for the beating. He then delivered a bleeding right hook himself, which severely injured Rodriguez. Volkanovski went for the takedown and fired a barrage of heavy punches from top position en route to a TKO at 4:19 of the third round in Saturday’s UFC 290 main event at T-Mobile Arena.
With the win, Volkanovski retained the UFC featherweight title. Rodriguez became the interim featherweight champion of the world.
“I’m the king of this division,” Volkanovski said in his post-fight interview in the Octagon. “No one ever stops me.”
Prior to UFC 290, ESPN tied Volkanovski for #1 on its pound-for-pound MMA list, along with UFC Lightweight Champion Islam Makhachev. At featherweight, Volkanovski was No. 1 and Rodriguez was No. 3.
Volkanovski said a certain “fear” crept in during that training camp because Rodriguez’s offense can be so powerful and creative. Rodriguez, taller than Volkanovski, is a punching specialist who attacks from all directions with all of his weapons, from fists to elbows to knees to whip kicks. It certainly didn’t help Volkanovski that the audience was overwhelmingly pro-Rodriguez, and in an area with a large Mexican-American population, there were several Mexican fighters like Rodriguez on the map.
But Volkanovski said he was able to flick a switch this week and focus on the task at hand.
“You have to expect the unexpected,” Volkanovski said. “This is Yair. Anyone who knows that game knows how dangerous it was.”
Volkanovski (26-2) fought his way through his previous fight against Makhachev and lost in a close unanimous decision. He said it’s still a fight he’d like to have in the future but he’ll likely need surgery on his right arm. Volkanovski said he would still like to fight before the end of the year.
The Australian-born fighter had won 22 straight fights including his first 12 in the UFC before losing to Makhachev. Volkanovski, 34, has been the UFC Featherweight Champion since defeating Max Holloway at UFC 245 on December 14, 2019. This was his fifth successful UFC featherweight title defense. Volkanovski is 11-0 in the UFC at 145 pounds.
“You’re talking about rounds,” Volkanovski said. “I’ve shown that I can confront, wrestle and punch the best. I come to take all the records. … The sky is the limit.”
Rodriguez (15-4, 1 NC) won the interim title by defeating Josh Emmett in the second round at UFC 284 in February. The fighter from Chihuahua, Mexico had won two in a row and three out of four wins. Rodriguez, 30, had suffered just one defeat since 2017 before Saturday.