Yair Rodriguez has nothing but disdain for Ilia Topuria and can't wait to get his hands on the new UFC featherweight champ

Yair Rodriguez, the former UFC interim featherweight champion, was born in Mexico and knows full well what is expected of him when he steps into the Octagon on Saturday at Arena CDMX in Mexico City to do a rematch with Brian Ortega. 

Fighting is part of the culture in Mexico and the fans there treat their stars like royalty. But while much is given, much is also expected and Rodriguez understands completely that a workmanlike, ho-hum victory isn't going to go over that well in his native land.

Fortunately for Rodriguez, he and Ortega are rarely in ho-hum bouts, whether they win or lose.

Rodriguez stopped Ortega on July 16, 2022, in Elmont, N.Y., at 4:11 of the first round when Ortega dislocated his shoulder trying to escape a Rodriguez submission attempt. But that fight was high-action and high-energy until its anti-climatic ending. The rematch will likely see adjustments on both sides, but not so much that it will change the tenor of the bout.

"Exciting. Entertaining. Fast pace," Rodriguez said when asked by KevinIole.com what he expects on Saturday.

It's a critical bout for both of them, as both have their eye on landing another title shot. Ortega lost previous title shots to Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski, while Rodriguez defeated Josh Emmett last year to win the interim featherweight belt, but dropped it in a unification bout five months later with Volkanovski.

The path to a title shot is not so clear. New champion Ilia Topuria, who knocked out Volkanovski in the second on Feb. 17 in the main event of UFC 298, has said that challengers like Rodriguez, Ortega and Holloway "suck" and that he doesn't want to give them a title shot. He may be forced to do a rematch with Volkanovski later this year in Spain, but there is talk that the Rodriguez-Ortega winner could get one, as well.

None of that really means anything, since UFC CEO Dana White and his matchmaking team won't make a bout without all of the information. And part of the information they'll need to match Topuria how the winner of the Rodriguez-Ortega bout looks.

Rodriguez is normally a low-key, calm fighter outside of the Octagon, but he's made it abundantly clear he has little use or love for Topuria, and got riled up at media day on Wednesday in Mexico City.

“I would love to f*ck him up,” Rodriguez said Wednesday. “I don’t want to fight him, I want to f*ck him up. There’s a f*cking big difference on that, just to make that clear. And anywhere I f*cking see him, I’ll f*ck him up."

If that wasn't enough to express his feelings regarding the new champ, he had a bit more to say.

"F*ck that bitch," he said. "I don't f*cking like him."

All right then.

He has to focus on Ortega, who had to undergo multiple surgeries after losing to Rodriguez on Long Island. And while it was disappointing for fans not to have seen the bout go to a natural conclusion and end on an injury, Rodriguez isn't bothered.

He performed at the top of his game that night and seemed on his way to a victory. Ortega tried to yank his arm when Rodriguez got him in an arm bar and he dislocated his shoulder. That forced the fight to be stopped, though Rodriguez had been in control of the fight.

"To me, it's real simple," Rodriguez said of those who question his win over Ortega. "If you understand this sport, you saw what happened. If you understand how to defend an arm bar, you saw what occurred. People I don't think are giving me enough credit for what I did. I don't know, man. For me, it was a win and I never looked at it like, 'Oh, he got injured and that's why the fight was stopped.' I did my job and there's a reason he had to do what he had to do."

So Rodriguez will do his job and face Ortega again, even though that wasn't on his wish list.

He's already beaten Ortega, but also would rather fight someone other than a fellow Mexican.

"If it were up to me, I wouldn't have ever fought him [because] we're both Mexican," he said. "I wasn't looking for him, but the fight was made because of what we had done. And then after that [2022] fight, I thought, 'OK, let's move on.' But this sport, you never know what is going to happen and here we are again. It's weird, but I just have to go do my job."