Yair Rodriguez: Grudge Match vs. Diego Lopes 'Has to Happen at Some Point'

While Yair Rodriguez was focused on a featherweight title shot after beating Patricio Freire at UFC 314, he’s well aware that another potential opponent has plenty of intrigue within the MMA community after events of this past week.

During the UFC 314 pre-fight press conference, Rodriguez and Lopes were involved in a shouting match in Spanish. While the bad blood is believed to have involved Rodriguez training partner Marco Beltran and potentially, the Lobo Gym MMA team — where Lopes trains — the exact nature of the feud is unknown. Rodriguez acknowledged that a bout with Lopes, who lost a unanimous decision to Alexander Volkanovski in the UFC 314 main event, might have more interest within the MMA fanbase at the moment.

“In the eyes of the fans, of course, but if you ask me, if you’re in my position right now, the beef can stay aside for now,” Rodriguez said at the post-fight press conference. “The only thing that I’m looking for right now is fighting for that belt.”

Rodriguez wouldn’t further elaborate on the animosity, but he expects more details will come to light in the future.

“What happened? I think when the moment comes we will talk more about it, but for now, I just want to focus on the title fight, which is fighting against the current champ Alexander Volkanovski in a rematch and I want to do that in Guadalajara,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez ended a two-bout losing streak by defeating Freire via unanimous decision at UFC 314. He faced Volkanovski for the 145-pound belt at UFC 290 in July 2023, when he lost to the Aussie via third-round TKO. However, after the promotion announced that Noche UFC — also known as UFC 320 — would be held in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Sept. 13, “El Pantera” believes a rematch in his home country is possible.

“Volkanovski has fought all around the world,” Rodriguez said. “He hasn’t fought in Mexico. Guadalajara isn’t super high elevation, I think it makes sense for the UFC to bring a huge numbered event in Guadalajara and I think Volkanovski will be able to run it back [with] me. I think he’ll be happy to do that.”

Regardless of what the future holds for Rodriguez, he believes that he and Lopes will square off sometime in the future.

“I think it has to happen at some point,” Rodriguez said. “I actually talked to my friend Marco Beltran and I told him, ‘I got you, bro. I’ve got this one for you. I’ll make sure at some point whenever I have the chance to fight him, I’ll make sure I got it for you.’ … I was able to play it cool for as long as I could keep it cool, but the guy was trying to be disrespectful in the press conference. Trying to [be] like, ‘Oh, how many losses does he have,’ kind of like attacking me like that. I was like, ‘You know what? That’s it.’ I’m not able to f—ing take it anymore.”