Why was Yair Rodriguez cut from the UFC? Here's what Dana White claimed and how the Mexican responded

Yair Rodriguez is among the most exciting fighters to watch in the UFC featherweight division and is widely known for his flashy striking skills. The Mexican fighter has an impressive 19-5 professional record and has wins over veterans like Jeremy Stephens, Brian Ortega, and Josh Emmett.

Despite his skills and status as one of the UFC's most exciting prospects, Rodriguez was once cut from the promotion in 2018 for allegedly refusing to accept two fights, including one against Zabit Magomedsharipov.

---

Why was Yair Rodriguez cut from the UFC?

In May 2018, the UFC announced that they had parted ways with Yair Rodriguez after he allegedly refused to accept fights against Ricardo Lamas and Zabit Magomedsharipov.

After Dana White announced that Rodriguez was set to fight Magomedsharipov at UFC 227 in August 2018, 'EL Pantera' dismissed the reports and wrote in an X post:

"#FakeNews."

In an interview with the LA Times soon after, Dana White revealed why they made the decision and reacted to 'El Pantera' calling the reports fake. He said:

"The guy’s off a year, rejects a fight with Lamas, and then doesn’t want to fight a guy below him in the rankings? He can go somewhere else. We have no use for him. He calls that fight fake news. This is real news." [H/t: LA Times]

Rodriguez was coming off a second-round TKO loss against Frankie Edgar at UFC 211 at the time. However, prior to that, the Mexican was on an impressive six-fight win streak in the UFC and had beaten high-profile stars like Dan Hooker, BJ Penn, and Alex Caceres.

After White explained to the media why Rodriguez was cut from the UFC, 'El Pantera' shared his side of the story on Ariel Helwani's show. He clarified that he was actually down to fight Lamas and Magomedsharipov, saying:

"They said Ricardo Lamas, then I said yes to Ricardo Lamas. I accepted to fight Ricardo Lamas, but then I later learned that he didn’t take the fight with me. He decided to fight [Mirsad] Bektic instead... I was like, okay, I’ll fight Zabit if you give me more money in LA because I understand how big of an event it is, and they said no.

He continued:

"I was like, okay, if you don’t want to give me more money to fight him in LA, why don’t you give [the fight] to me in Russia, and there’s no need to do any negotiation for that. I want him in Russia. Why? Because he was calling me out. They didn’t even want to give it to me in Russia." [H/t: MMA Fighting]

Three weeks after being cut, Rodriguez announced that he'd buried the hatchet with the UFC and was back on the promotion's roster.

Watch the full interview below: