Yair Rodriguez prepares to fight BJ Penn (not pictured) during the UFC Fight Night event at the at Talking Stick Resort Arena on January 15, 2017 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Yair Rodriguez hasn’t had a great time in the UFC and was handed a suspension recently
Things took a turn for the worse for Yair Rodriguez and his UFC career. Dana White, the UFC president, had earlier spoken about not knowing what was up with the 28-year-old and couldn’t give a proper answer regarding his future.
However, he didn’t believe that Rodriguez would be fighting anytime soon and things were made clear earlier today.
USADA suspended Rodriguez for six months after he failed to fill details regarding his whereabouts. This wasn’t his first strike and the decision was taken after his third such strike in the last 12-months.
Ariel Helwani, a leading ESPN journalist, however, had a different take in all this. He suggested that Rodriguez wasn’t hiding some drugs use or failed test but didn’t know how to use an app.
Helwani claimed he was told this and that the 28-year-old UFC star wasn’t trying to avoid getting tested at all:
A few UFC stars backed Helwani’s claims regarding the USADA testing requirements being problematic for them too.
However, this is a kick for Rodriguez who was set to face Zabit Magomedsharipov a while back. The Mexican pulled out of the clash due to an injury and with this six-month suspension, Rodriguez will only be eligible for the UFC on 8 March 2021.
This isn’t the first time Rodriguez has fallen foul of the UFC policies. Back in 2018, he was released from the promotion after he failed to accept two fights.
However, the pair worked out their differences and three weeks later, he was reinstated into the promotion.
Rodriguez was ranked #4 in the UFC’s Featherweight division and holds a record of 13 wins, two losses and 1 no contests.
It will be interesting to see if things work out between him and USADA. They have taken a strict stance regarding the missing of tests on other stars too, and hopefully, we get to see Rodriguez in action sooner rather than later.
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