Report: Yair Rodriguez, Zabit Magomedsharipov Verbally Agree to Meet at UFC 228

Yair Rodriguez’s situation in the UFC has taken an unexpected turn.

It appeared as if Rodriguez’s days in the UFC were done, but now it seems that “Pantera” and Zabit Magomedsharipov have verbally agreed to a fight at UFC 228 in September, according to a report from ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto.

I'm told UFC is rescinding its termination letter to Yair Rodriguez, essentially reinstating his contract. The Magomedsharipov fight is not signed yet, but is UFC 228 on Sept. 8. No location finalized for that event.

— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) June 1, 2018

According to multiple reports, Rodriguez had been released from his UFC contract just a couple of weeks ago after turning down an August fight against Magomedsharipov at UFC 227.

“We offered him fights, he turned down the fights. There was a lot more back and forth that went on with that. If you don’t want to fight, this isn’t the place to be. There’s plenty of places out there that will take Yair Rodriguez, and would love to have him, and would sign him, and I’m sure he’ll have a great career,” UFC President Dana White said at last week’s UFC Fight Night 130 post-fight press conference. “This isn’t the place for you.”

Rodriguez (10-2) has a 6-1 mark in UFC, but he hasn’t fought after a TKO loss to Frankie Edgar at UFC 211 in May 2017. Magomedsharipov (15-1) is coming off an unanimous decision win over Kyle Bochniak at UFC 223.