UFC Predictions: UFC Fight Night: Max Holloway vs. Yair Rodriguez
After two blockbuster shows, the UFC is back in Las Vegas this weekend for UFC Fight Night: Max Holloway vs. Yair Rodriguez.
Understandably, this UFC Fight Night is nowhere near as star-studded as the last two events produced by the promotion, but it should still have enough to make it watchable.
Max Holloway is built different! 😤
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With that in mind, here are the predicted outcomes for UFC Fight Night: Max Holloway vs. Yair Rodriguez.
#1: UFC featherweight division: Max Holloway vs. Yair Rodriguez
While this fight doesn’t pique the interest like the big UFC title fights on last weekend’s event, it could still produce an instant classic and may well end up being one of 2021’s better clashes.
It could also produce the next top contender for the UFC featherweight title, although admittedly, it may be tricky to justify a title shot for Holloway given Alexander Volkanovski still holds the belt.
However, if ‘Blessed’ performs to the same level as he did in his victory over Calvin Kattar in January, it may be hard to deny him.
Rodriguez is a tricky fighter to really get a handle on at this point. Ranked at #3 in the UFC featherweight division, ‘El Pantera’ is clearly talented, but quite how that ranking is justified is a question mark right now.
Sure, he has a win over the #4 ranked Chan Sung Jung, but that win is his only truly relevant one in recent years, and more to the point, he hasn’t fought for a solid two years now.
The last time we saw him in the octagon, he defeated Jeremy Stephens in a largely impressive performance, but that was October 2019.
The sound of that strike! How did Stephens survive!?
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Since then, he’s been on the shelf with numerous injuries, and even suffered a six-month USADA suspension for failing to disclose his whereabouts, even if there was no indication of him using PEDs.
So how do these two match up? Theoretically at least, it’s a fight between a master technician in Holloway and a genuine wildman in Rodriguez, although we have seen glimpses of the opposite from both fighters in the past.
Based on what we’ve seen recently though, it’s probably fair to favor Holloway pretty heavily. The Hawaiian is not only one of the best technical boxers in the UFC (the best, according to Holloway himself) but he also chains combinations together like no other, never slows down, and produces volume striking largely unheard of in the UFC.
Rodriguez meanwhile – even ignoring his two years on the shelf – gassed out pretty badly in that win over Stephens, and hasn’t really shown the best cardio in the past, even if he’s capable of Hail Mary finishes, as we saw against 'The Korean Zombie'.
More pointedly, Rodriguez also struggled with the jab of Jung in that fight, and ‘Blessed’ is more than capable of keeping him at the end of a similar strike.
Add in the fact that Holloway has a genuinely iron chin, and it’ll probably take something completely spectacular to stop him. Overall, expect the Hawaiian’s volume to overwhelm ‘El Pantera’, leading to a mid-fight stoppage.
The Pick: Holloway via third round TKO
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