One of the month’s most eagerly anticipated fights between Yair Rodriguez and Zabit Magomedsharipov has been scratched from the headline spot in Las Vegas on August 29th after Rodriguez suffered an injury.
“Yeah, (he’s out),” White confirmed to the media last night after an initial report from Milenio. “He had a high ankle sprain and a fracture. So he’s out. We’re looking for a replacement.”
Rodriguez had been heading into the fight following big wins over both ‘The Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung and Jeremy Stephens, the former of which had been one of the most spectacular stoppages in UFC history, KO’ing the South Korean star with a ducking, no-look upward elbow in the final second of their five-round battle.
That leaves Rodriguez with an 8-1 (+1nc) record in the UFC so far and ranked No.5 in the featherweight division, with his only loss coming by TKO to former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar back in 2017.
Meanwhile, Magomedsharipov has had a perfect 6-0 UFC run to date in which he’s also beaten Jeremy Stephens and most recently earned a ‘Fight Of The Night’ unanimous decision win against Calvin Kattar in November of last year.
As it happens, with Rodriguez out, Kattar is now believed to be seeking a rematch with Magomesharipov on short-notice, but it remains to be seen whether that’s the UFC’s preferred choice as they look to keep the Russian ace on the card.
