Late yesterday (Tues., Aug. 4, 2020), it was announced that Yair Rodriguez had been forced to withdraw from his scheduled bout against Zabit Magomedsharipov, which was scheduled to go down on Aug. 29, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Naturally, the news didn’t please too many people, Zabit included. In fact, the scrappy Featherweight was dumbfounded with not only the injury, but because “El Pantera” never signed on the dotted line to begin with.
“It’s funny I signed bout agreement few weeks ago, Yair never did, UFC never announced officially main event,” he wrote on Twitter. “Two options: 1. UFC playing games 2. Yair has no balls.”
The bout was originally set to go down on Aug. 27 in 2018 before it was pulled and Rodriguez was cut from the promotion. After mending fences, UFC and Rodriguez agreed on a deal that would see him face Zabit at UFC 228 the following month. However, that bout was also scratched after Rodriguez pulled out with an injury.
It’s Khabib vs. Ferguson all over again ...
That brings us to present date, as Rodriguez has once again been struck down by the injury bug, leaving Magomedsharipov furious and with a lot of questions. Several combatants have offered to step in and fill the void, but UFC has yet to commit to a replacement.
Stay tuned.
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