Who is Yair Rodriguez dating? Is ‘El Pantera’ still seeing UFC women’s flyweight champion Alexa Grasso?
UFC featherweight Yair Rodriguez is known to keep his personal life private but there have been rumors that he has been in a relationship with UFC women's flyweight champion Alex Grasso since 2019.
'El Pantera' has regularly stated on more than one occasion that he's more interested in his fighting career right now than building a relationship. That, however, hasn't stopped fans from speculating.
The Mexican fighters are believed to have first met when they both competed at UFC Fight Night 159 in 2019. Rodriguez faced Jeremy Stephens in the main event, whereas Grasso competed against Carla Esparza in the co-main.
Since then, the pair have been pictured outside of the octagon together on numerous occasions and even attended former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez's Lucha Libre debut.
Whilst both have continued to keep their private lives close to their chest, Grasso will likely be rooting for Rodriguez when he returns to action this weekend.
The 32-year-old is set for a bout against Brian Ortega at UFC Fight Night 237 in Mexico City. Their clash is a rematch of their 2022 bout, which was declared a TKO win for Rodriguez after Ortega suffered a shoulder injury in the first round.
The women's flyweight champ has also been doing a host of media duties before the event and is expected to be sitting cage-side on the night supporting her compatriots.
Yair Rodriguez goes off on Ilia Topruai ahead of Brian Ortega clash
Yair Rodriguez appears to already be planning his next fight after he called out newly crowned featherweight champion Ilia Topuria.
Topuria stunned the world last weekend when he dethroned Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298. 'El Matador' stopped the Australian with a stunning KO in the second round, becoming the first man to defeat 'The Great' at 145 pounds.
At the UFC Mexico media day earlier this week, Rodriguez was asked about Topuria's victory, and 'El Pantera' didn't hold back with his response. He said:
''I love to f**k him up. No, I don't want to fight him, I want to f**k him up. There is a f**king big difference on that, to make that clear and anywhere I f**king see him, I'll f**k him up.''
Yair Rodriguez added:
''F**k this b*tch, I don't f**king like him.''
Check out his comments here (3:45):