Yair Rodriguez is officially out of the fight night main event on August 29.
Originally, the featherweight was set to face Zabit Magomedsharipov at the show; however, the UFC President himself revealed the bad news during the Dana White’s Contender Series Episode 27 post-fight media scrum, “Yeah, he had a high ankle sprain and a fracture, so he is out,” White said (Transcript courtesy of BJPenn.com).
According to the report, Rodriguez is hoping to get the fight rescheduled, but nothing has been confirmed at this time. Since then, Ariel Helwani of ESPN has reported that Calvin Kattar is willing to step in for a rematch against Magomedsharipov; however, there’s no word on whether the featherweight is interested in facing Kattar again.
While Kattar is coming off an impressive victory over Dan Ige at UFC Fight Night 172, Magomedsharipov decisively beat the 32-year-old at UFC Fight Night Moscow. Kattar is currently No. 6 in the featherweight division rankings.
With Max Holloway coming off a title bout against Alexander Volkanovski, and Brian Ortega and Chan Sung Jung linked to fight each other in the future, Magomedsharipov’s next options are Rodriguez or Kattar. We’ll keep you updated on the situation should more news come out.