Yair Rodriguez and Steve Garcia are being lined up for a featherweight fight. The news came from Mike Bohn, who mentioned the matchup at the 19:59 mark of his interview with Aaron Pico, and the clip got passed around r/MMA early Wednesday. Nothing is signed that anyone has said publicly. There’s no event, no date and no venue yet, only the word that the UFC is building the fight.
The pairing makes more sense once you look at who both men have been sharing a cage and a ranking chart with. Garcia’s most recent appearance ended badly. Diego Lopes knocked him out at UFC White House, and Lopes has since packed his bags for lightweight, where he’ll make his 155-pound debut against Charles Oliveira for the BMF title in the UFC 335 main event on Dec. 12 at T-Mobile Arena. Lopes leaves 145 as a two-time featherweight title challenger. Garcia stays behind and needs a big name to climb back with. Rodriguez is about as big a name as the division can offer him.
Rodriguez, a former interim champion, sits at No. 3 in the November Combat Press featherweight rankings, behind only champion Alexander Volkanovski and Lopes. The UFC Meta Rankings published by MMA Mania this week tell a stranger story. Garcia is listed at No. 14 there, while Rodriguez doesn’t appear in the featherweight top 15 at all. Two lists, two very different pictures of the same man, and the fight with Garcia will at least give the next update something concrete to work from.
The top of the division just got shaken. At UFC 333, Volkanovski stopped Movsar Evloev in the second round, handing Evloev the first loss of his professional career. That defense pushed Volkanovski past José Aldo for the most title-fight wins in featherweight history. The same card saw Pico, the man Bohn was interviewing when the Rodriguez news slipped out, need just over a minute to stop Losene Keita. Pico is No. 9 in the Combat Press list and No. 10 on the Meta chart, so he has his own reasons to watch who Rodriguez fights next.
With Lopes gone up a weight and Evloev freshly beaten, the line of contenders behind Volkanovski looks thinner than it did a month ago. Aljamain Sterling, Lerone Murphy and Jean Silva are all ranked in the mix, and whoever wins Rodriguez vs. Garcia will be pushing into that same conversation.
My take: this is a good fight for Garcia and a fair ask for Rodriguez. Garcia gets to step straight from a knockout loss into a matchup with a former interim champ, which is a gift you rarely see handed out, and he’ll have to earn it. Rodriguez gets an opponent with real pop, someone whose highlights will travel, instead of a long wait for a title shot that doesn’t exist right now while Volkanovski is clearing the room. The number I’ll be watching is that missing ranking. If Rodriguez beats Garcia convincingly, the Meta chart has to find a place for him, and it probably won’t be anywhere near 15th.
