Yair Rodriguez promises to KO Josh Emmett to win the interim featherweight title at UFC 284: “I have better tools”

Yair Rodriguez is confident he will become the interim featherweight champion on Saturday at UFC 284.

Rodriguez is set to take on Emmett in the co-main event of UFC 284 in Australia in a very fan-friendly fight. Both men are primarily strikers, but Rodriguez believes he has the advantage on the feet and expects that will lead to a knockout.

“Josh Emmett is explosive, aggressive, strong, but I think I have better tools. If I can use my abilities as I normally do, I visualize myself getting a knockout,” Rodriguez said on UFC Countdown.

Yair Rodriguez does have knockout power as he does have five wins coming by knockout with three of his eight UFC wins coming by KO/TKO. However, Josh Emmett has been durable throughout his career as he has only been knocked out once which was back in 2018, so Rodriguez KO’ing him may be easier said than done.

“It’s been a successful career, it’s been a great journey. I’m always going to keep on pushing forward to become a champion,” Rodriguez added.

Although Rodriguez has said his career has been successful so far, he knows winning a title would help cement his legacy. If he defeats Emmett at UFC 284, he would be the interim champ which could potentially lead to him being promoted to undisputed if Alexander Volkanovski doesn’t return to 145lbs, or he gets the crack at the Aussie next time out.

Yair Rodriguez (14-3 and one No Contest) is coming off a TKO win over Brian Ortega in a fight ‘T-City’ dislocated his shoulder. Prior to that, he suffered a decision loss to Max Holloway which. Before the setback to Holloway, he had a win over Jeremy Stephens, the No Contest to Stephens, and a KO wins over the Korean Zombie. In his career, he also holds notable wins over BJ Penn, Andre Fili, Dan Hooker, and Alex Caceres.

Do you think Yair Rodriguez will KO Josh Emmett at UFC 284?