While the UFC on ABC 3 headliner was only just getting started when
a Brian
Ortega shoulder injury brought the fight to a premature close,
Yair
Rodriguez was pleased with the way things were unfolding prior
to the unfortunate ending.
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“I think I was doing really well,” Rodriguez said at Saturday’s
post-fight press conference. “I connected with a couple of solid
jabs. I think I connected with a good right hand a couple of times,
an overhand, and like a cross, and I kind of saw him wobbling. I
hit him with a couple of good low kicks, high kicks.”
Rodriguez did appear to be getting the better of the action on the
feet, which is probably why Ortega attempted to take the fight to
the canvas. Once he did, though, Rodriguez framed an armbar from
his back, and that ultimately led to Ortega suffering the fight
ending injury as he attempted to free his arm from the submission.
From Rodriguez’s perspective, his maneuver played a part in ending
Ortega’s night.
“When I went to the floor, I went for the armbar, and I was
trapping him really hard, trying to push him away to go for the
armbar in the bottom. I think at the moment when he was trying to
get the arm out from there, I think I saw him doing a face, so
something happened,” Rodriguez said.
“He went to the floor, he grabbed his shoulder, and I stopped
fighting. I realized something was going on, so I let him and I
stopped fighting. I asked him, ‘Hey, what’s going on? What
happened?’ And he was like, ‘Oh my shoulder, my shoulder.’ So I
stopped, and that’s it.”
It was an anticlimactic ending to a bout that was expected to help
provide some clarity to the featherweight title picture.
“It sucks,” UFC president Dana White said. “It sucks. It’s a rough
sport and these things happen. And it looked like it was shaping up
to be a great fight. So, you know, these things are going to
happen. What are you going to do? It sucks.”
Ortega immediately lobbied for a rematch in the aftermath of the
bout, but White was non-commital regarding any future plans for
’T-City.”
“[Ortega] probably needs shoulder surgery now,” White said. “I had
shoulder surgery. It’s a nightmare, and it takes a long time to
recover from. We’ll see what happens. I’m not even thinking about
that right now. But awesome that they both want to do it.”