Rising Star Yair Rodriguez Released from the UFC Roster

Yair Rodriguez has been released from the UFC.

Following a tumultuous negotiation over his next fight, the UFC has cut ties with Rodriguez after he reportedly couldn’t come to terms on bouts against either Ricardo Lamas or Zabit Magomedsharipov.

UFC president Dana White first confirmed the news to the L.A. Times on Thursday. Sources close to the fighter also confirmed that Rodriguez has been notified of his release and he has officially been cut from the UFC.

“The guy’s off a year, rejects a fight with Lamas and then doesn’t want to fight a guy below him in the rankings? He can go somewhere else. We have no use for him,” White stated.

“He calls that fight fake news. This is real news.”

It’s a stunning turn of events considering Rodriguez was touted as one of the biggest up and coming stars on the UFC roster just a year ago.

Following a knockout win over B.J. Penn in January 2017, Rodriguez was matched up with former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar. Unfortunately, Rodriguez suffered a lopsided loss with Edgar finishing the fight by TKO after the second round.

Since that time, Rodriguez has uprooted his life to train with different teams across the country as he prepared to make his return in 2018.

Rodriguez had been in talks with the UFC on his next fight but by all accounts an agreement couldn’t be reached and the promotion decided to cut ties with him.

Reports surfaced earlier this week that Rodriguez was expected to face Magomedsharipov at UFC 227 in Los Angeles and his response on Twitter came along with the hash tag ‘fake news’.