The Ultimate Fighting Championship is back with us tonight, July 8, 2023, for International Fight Week, as UFC 290 kicks off live from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The event was headlined by a unification match for the featherweight title between undisputed champion Aleksander Volkanovski (25-2) and interim champion Yair Rodriguez (15-3).
Volkanovski is back at 145 pounds tonight after trying to add the UFC Lightweight Championship to his resume, failing against Islam Makhachev in February, and looking to make his fifth successful title defense.
Rodriguez, on the other hand, has been racking up consecutive stoppage wins over former rival Brian Ortega, and most recently Josh Emmett, whom he defeated for the interim title at UFC 284, the same event Volkanovski last fought.
Read on to see how this epic featherweight tournament went down:
Official result: Alexander Volkanovsky defeated. Yair Rodriguez via TKO (punches) at 4:19 of the third round
Volkanowski secures three takedowns in four attempts within the first five minutes, spending a good portion of the opening round on top of Rodriguez.
Rodriguez begins to successfully kick his kicks early in the second, although he is taken down again around 90 seconds later. Even though he’s right back on his feet, the champ easily pulls him down the mat and bleeds him from the top spot.
This is very similar to Rodriguez’s fight with former UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar.
Rodriguez was able to stay on his feet in the third round and to pick Volkanovski away from each other. The difference is that he uses his hands more, attaching his leg, body, and head kicks to them.
But Volkanowski hits a thunderous shot that hurts Rodriguez. He proceeds to pick Rodriguez up and knock him to the mat, where he then lands on some heavy ground and pound for a third round stoppage win.
And still
Aleksandr Volkanovski stops Yair Rodriguez in Round 3đŸ’ª #UFC290 pic.twitter.com/nifnnR5gMH
– ESPN MMA (@espnmma) July 9, 2023
After the last two interim featherweight champions (Conor McGregor, Max Holloway) managed to defeat the undisputed champion and unify their titles, Yair Rodriguez did not live up to the “great”.
Aleksander Volkanovski made his fifth defense of the UFC Featherweight Championship tonight at UFC 290.
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I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was browsing channels and landed on Versus, which is where WEC was on TV. Uriah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. This is the first fight I’ve ever seen, and I got addicted to it instantly. Eventually, I started covering the sport in the last quarter of 2018, and since then I’ve started writing about animals as well. If you’d like to see these pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!