Yair Rodriguez showed off his exciting, explosive striking skills again tonight at UFC 197, KO’ing Andre Fili mid-way through the second round.
Round One:
Rodriguez with a hard leg kick to start. Fili comes up short with a head kick attempt. Spinning back kick to the body from Rodriguez, but it doesn’t connect hard.
Rodriguez with a super fast spinning kick to the head, but it just whistles past his head. Fili with a nice punch that gets his opponent’s attention.
Rodriguez able to get a takedown and starts landing some solid ground and pound. Fili with a kick from his back. Rodriguez threatening with a potential leg lock attempt, but doesn’t go all out for it and eventually settles into half guard. A little more ground and pound from him.
Fili tries to scramble out, but Rodriguez keeps him down and moves to side control and still about 90 seconds to work. Fili scrambles and Rodriguez opts to stand over him. Fili waits for his moment and pops up to his feet.
Rodriguez with a low kick kick that knocks Fili off-balance. Left hand for Fili knocks Rodriguez off his feet – like his opponent moments earlier that was more down to having lost his balance more than anything though.
Round Two:
Fili with a one-two to start. Jumping kick from Rodriguez and then leaps again, but falls off-balance on that occasion. Rodriguez briefly down on the mat after a slip as Fili pressures, but pops back up.
Rodriguez with a nice takedown now. Fili trying to work for a submission from his back and Rodriguez opts to just stand and move away.
Rodriguez with a couple of spinning kicks that don’t find the target. He lands a low leg kick.
Suddenly Rodriguez launches into a flying roundhouse kick and it lands clean and hard to Fili’s face and it topples him like a tree. Fili is out – Rodriguez earns himself a spectacular KO finish with 2.15mins of the second round gone!
That’ll surely end up being a contender for KO Of The Year, with Rodriguez looking like he was throwing a right kick, but then switched in mid-air to the left and switched off Fili’s lights. Mexico has a star on it’s hands in this former TUF: Latin America winner.
