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Daniel
Rodriguez’s resilience made his action-packed scrap with
Dwight
Grant at UFC on ESPN 15 a solid contender for 2020’s “Round of
the Year.”
Grant nearly made it a short night, as he dropped Rodriguez with a
right hook and flurried for a finish on his reeling foe at the
outset of the bout. Fortunately for Rodriguez, referee Chris
Tognoni gave him plenty of leeway to recover. What followed was an
impressive rally in which Rodriguez floored the American Kickboxing
Academy product three times en route to a knockout victory at the
2:24 mark of Round 1.
“I knew he had power I didn’t expect to get hit with it so early,”
Rodriguez said. “I kind of expected I might get hit eventually,
because he had these wild, loopy punches… He caught me and I had
never been in that situation before, ever. Especially when he
pounced on me… Fortunately I was able to regain my composure
quickly, block all his punches and make my way back up to the cage.
It wasn’t easy, but as soon as we got back up, I landed a short
check hook and I saw him go down. I gained all my composure back
right there and it was my game from there.
“I had never been in that situation during competition, but it’s
interesting,” he added. “I’m a street fighter, I’ve been in this
kind of situations before where there’s more than one dude on me.
And just to know that I was able to weather that storm gives me so
much more confidence that I’m built for this. You never know what
you are capable of until you are put in a situation. Now I know
what I’m truly made of.”
It’s been a productive 2020 for Rodriguez, who kicked off his
tenure with an upset of Tim Means in
February and has since added triumphs over Gabriel
Green and Grant to his resume. The 33-year-old 10th Planet
Jiu-Jitsu representative is one of only three fighters so far this
year to pick up three triumphs in UFC competition. Once he heals
from his most recent Octagon appearance, Rodriguez would like to
get back to work as soon as possible.
“I want to just keep on fighting,” he said. “I had to get some
stitches on my toes, so that might take I don’t know how long. It’s
right under my toe, so to be able to run and do certain things
might be a challenge. I might have to take a little bit of time
off.
“Other than that, I hope to get another fight sometime this year
and just finish out the year strong and keep moving up the ranks,
moving up that ladder. I just want to fight, it’s all I have ever
wanted to do.”
