Yair Rodriguez came up short in his attempt to seize the featherweight title from Alexander Volkanovski in the main event of UFC 290 this past weekend in Las Vegas after being TKO’d in the third round and now he’s issued his first post-fight statement about what happened.
“Thanks for watching friends,” Rodriguez wrote on Instagram.
“I know that expectations were not met, the truth from the heart I had in my mind the vision of winning and the mentality.
“I can only say that congratulations to @alexvolkanovski for an excellent performance and to his team as well.
“Nothing knocks us down, I said it before and I will continue saying it, resilience is something that is part of me as of all Mexicans and it is also for men to accept defeat when it knocks on our door.
“It is not the only opportunity I will have to make all of you who love and support me proud, many more will come!
“Long live Mexico 🇲🇽 today and always!”
The defeat saw the 30-year-old lose his grasp on the interim title he’d won after defeating Josh Emmett earlier in the year, and leaves him with an overall UFC record of 10-3 (+1nc) to date.