Yair Rodriguez gives timetable for Octagon return

Earlier this month, on the main card of the stacked UFC 211, red hot Mexican featherweight prospect Yair Rodriguez faced the biggest test of his career in Frankie Edgar. Regrettably for Rodriguez and his legions of fans, it did not turn out to be his night, as he was taken out by his far more experienced foe.

This, of course, is not the way he hoped things would go. Rodriguez looked back on the loss in a recent interview with BJPenn.com’s Chris Taylor:

“I was really looking forward to winning that fight, to knocking him out,” he said. “I was looking forward to knocking Frankie Edgar out. Unfortunately some stuff didn’t work, but my plan was go and win that fight, come back to train again, and go for that belt. But sometimes goals don’t come whenever you want them to come. It was my time to learn a little more about my game and the holes in my game. So I’m just taking it easy now, back in my training, working on the stuff that I have to fix in my game. I’m getting better, getting stronger, getting faster.”

With this loss in the rear-view mirror, Rodriguez will now return to Mexico to take care of some personal matters.

“I’ve been talking to my team, and with my family, and there’s a lot of stuff that I have to get done before I start thinking about a training camp again,” he explained.

“I have to go back to Mexico and fix some stuff with my family down there,” he continued. “That’s it, then I’m going to see when I’m going to fight again.” 

As far as a timetable goes, Rodriguez believes a fall return to action is realistic.

“Probably, yeah,” he said, when asked if a fall return to the cage was likely. “It’s probably going to take a couple of months.” 

Who do you want to see Yair Rodriguez fight in his return to the cage?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 5/29/2017.