"I don’t wanna fight him, I want to f*** him up" - Yair Rodriguez goes off at "b*tch" Ilia Topuria ahead of UFC Mexico fight against Brian Ortega

Yair Rodriguez recently criticized newly crowned featherweight champion Ilia Topuria ahead of his fight against Brian Ortega at UFC Mexico City.

Topuria stunned the world by knocking out Alexander Volkanovski in the second round to win the UFC featherweight title at UFC 298 this past weekend. Prior to his win against 'The Great', the Spaniard revealed that he wouldn't give former title challengers a shot at gold. That includes Mexico's Rodriguez, who was understandably upset by 'El Matador's' remarks.

At UFC Mexico City media day, the former interim featherweight champion didn't hold back and discussed his feelings toward the new 145-pound titleholder:

''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 fuck him up.''

Rodriguez added:

''F**k this b*tch, I don't f**king like him.''

Catch Yair Rodriguez's comments below (3:50):

Topuria has made it clear that while he's open to offering Volkanovski an immediate rematch out of respect, he will not give former champion Max Holloway, former interim champion Rodriguez, and former title challenger Brian Ortega a title shot.

Rodriguez notably took on Volkanovski for the 145-pound title at UFC 290 last year, falling short via third-round TKO.

'El Pantera' returns to action this weekend against fellow former title challenger Ortega at UFC Mexico City. The fight will serve as the co-main event and is a rematch of their 2022 encounter, which Rodriguez won by first-round TKO after 'T-City' suffered a shoulder injury.

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Yair Rodriguez acknowledges his error in Alexander Volkanovski defeat

Yair Rodriguez has opened up about his title unification loss to Alexander Volkanovski last year.

Rodriguez was defeated via TKO in the third round of the UFC 290 main event last July, failing to secure undisputed champion status. In an interview with ESPN Deportes, Rodriguez admitted that he was to blame for his rushed approach in the title fight:

"I accept all the weight of the mistake on my shoulders, I shouldn't have gone out so quickly to the fight. Many fighters would have preferred to throw the fight at the moment, than to go out so fast. I don't know if it was because I didn't want the audience to get cold, nor did I want to get out of the fight so quickly. I was stunned and what I wanted was to fight, I left very soon." [h/t ESPN Deportes]