Kleydson
Rodrigues does not yet have his feet fully underneath him in
the
Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight division—a situation
he hopes to remedy in his latest assignment.
The former Jungle
Fight champion will do battle with Shannon
Ross as part of the
UFC 284 undercard on Saturday at the RAC Arena in Perth,
Australia, where he aims to nail down his first victory inside the
Octagon. Rodrigues made his promotional debut on May 7, when he
wound up on the wrong side of contentious split decision against
C.J.
Vergara at UFC 274.
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“The fight against Vergara was very close,” he told Sherdog.com. “A
lot of folks didn’t agree with the results.”
Rodrigues outlanded the onetime Fury Fighting Championship
titleholder 81-71 in terms of significant strikes and accounted for
the only two completed takedowns in the bout. However, Vergara was
credited with more control time and connected with more total
strikes. All three judges struck 29-28 scorecards: Junichiro Kamijo
for Rodrigues, Eric Colon
and Eric Curcio for Vergara.
“Without taking any credit away from him, I do believe I won,”
Rodrigues said. “He landed hard shots. Plus, he was fighting at
home and was trying not to lose two a row. I think I should have
fought with more hunger, so I could have gotten a finish. I had a
chance to take his back, and I almost landed a leglock. Next time,
it won’t go to the judges.”
Nine months have passed since his encounter with Vergara—and not
entirely by choice. Rodrigues was scheduled to face Vinicius
Salvador at UFC Fight Night 213 in October. However, Salvador
withdrew, necessitating a change in opponent to Cody
Durden. Eventually, Rodrigues was forced to bow out with a hand
injury, leading to a lengthy layoff.
“When I was about to fly on fight week, I ended up hurting my
hand,” the
Team Nogueira export said. “I didn’t break it, but it was very
painful. It was my strong hand, my right. My team and I got
together and agreed that I should not fight. I couldn’t risk losing
because of it.”
Now fully recovered, Rodrigues sets his sights on Ross. The
33-year-old Australian has rattled off five victories across his
past seven appearances. He last competed in August, when he
succumbed to second-round punches from the aforementioned Salvador
on
Dana White’s Contender Series.
“He is very aggressive,” Rodrigues said. “He likes to bang it out
and knock people out. My strategy will be to nullify his game. I
also have good striking, in addition to several other weapons I can
deploy against him.”