Yair Rodriguez focused on UFC title, but Diego Lopes fight ‘has to happen’

Yair Rodriguez’s fight week had no shortage of opposition.

Officially, he was booked to fight Patricio Pitbull at UFC 314 on Saturday. After defeating Pitbull, he called for a shot at the featherweight title, which was later claimed by Alexander Volkanovski at the end of the evening. And then there’s Diego Lopes.

Rodriguez and Lopes both currently train out of Mexico and the two have a deep animosity for each other that bubbled to the surface during this past Thursday’s pre-fight press conference in Miami. The fighters exchanged words and had to be separated by security.

At Saturday’s post-fight press conference, Rodriguez was asked if his personal beef with Lopes takes priority over fighting Volkanovski a second time.

“In the eyes of the fans, of course, but if you ask me, if you’re in my position right now, the beef can stay aside for now,” Rodriguez said. “The only thing that I’m looking for right now is fighting for that belt.

“What happened? I think when the moment comes we will talk more about it, but for now, I just want to focus on the title fight, which is fighting against the current champ Alexander Volkanovski in a rematch and I want to do that in Guadalajara.”

Rodriguez snapped a two-fight losing streak with an impressive decision over Pitbull, who made his debut after a 15-year run competing for Bellator that included three reigns as that promotion’s featherweight champion. “El Pantera” feels his performance combined with his opponent’s credentials should be enough to earn him a rematch with Volkanovski.

Volkanovski defeated Rodriguez—then interim champion—in a title unification bout at UFC 290 in July 2023. That’s a loss Rodriguez badly wants to avenge, though he assured fans that his feud with Lopes will not go unresolved.

“I think it has to happen at some point,” Volkanovski said. “I actually talked to my friend Marco Beltran and I told him, ‘I got you, bro. I’ve got this one for you. I’ll make sure at some point whenever I have the chance to fight him, I’ll make sure I got it for you.’ I didn’t want to do—as you’ve seen, [Lopes and I] were able to take pictures together, I was able to play it cool for as long as I could keep it cool, but the guy was trying to be disrespectful in the press conference. Trying to like, ‘Oh, how many losses does he have,’ kind of like attacking me like that.

“I was like, ‘You know what? That’s it.’ I’m not able to f*cking take it anymore.”

While Rodriguez declined to elaborate on the exact issues between him and Lopes, it has to do with not just them, but their teams. Lopes defeated Rodriguez’s teammate Marco Beltran at a LUX Fight League event in November 2019 and apparently the bad blood has only worsened from there.

Complicating Rodriguez’s situation is the fact that Volkanovski is already one up on him and the matchmakers may decide to go in a different direction. But Rodriguez is confident he’ll be booked for a prominent spot at the upcoming UFC 320 event in Guadalajara, Mexico, and it makes sense to him that he fight for the title once more.

“Volkanovski has fought all around the world,” Rodriguez said. “He hasn’t fought in Mexico. Guadalajara isn’t super high elevation, I think it makes sense for the UFC to bring a huge numbered event in Guadalajara and I think Volkanovski will be able to run it back from me, I think he’ll be happy to do that.”