Yair Rodriguez has had his quite part of UPS and Down since he signed at the UFC in 2014.
After being temporarily released by the promotion and his actions in the infamous incident with the crowd of Mexico City to winning the interim -feedweight title, 'El Pantera' seems to be in a great place at the moment.
His next outing will be on UFC 314 on April 12 in Miami, where Rodriguez Patricio Pitbull will welcome in the Octagon in an incredible collision at 145 pounds.
There has been some tension between them in the build -up with Pitbull that share an exchange they had before they were tailored to the Kaseya center.
Away from the spotlights, at this stage in his career prior to another crucial fight, the 32-year-old is able to look back at some mistakes he has made with total honesty over the years.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Yair Rodriguez admits that he did not put any effort into earlier training camps
In a recent interview with ESPN MMA, Yair Rodriguez spoke about the impact of having a great team around him on the VFS Academy in Chicago.
The Mexican striker has been training with Belal Muhammad and Julianna Pena under coach Mike Valle for a while, but he believes that he was really able to concentrate on his preparations for UFC 314.
Rodriguez was asked how he had not been able to get a solid training block with this team in recent years for a period of 3 or 4 months.
That has now changed and 'El Pantera' has no problem to admit that his training camps have not been ideal throughout his career.
He thought about how many of his versions, both good and bad, are a consequence that he does not put his best foot ahead by giving 100% at all times.
The former interim -fedweight champion is now convinced that he has put it behind if he seems to bounce back from successive defeats.
“I mean, look, posting all the cards on the table, I think it's a few years ago. It is many years ago that I hardly gave the training camp the attention it needed. 10 weeks, 2 weeks to adjust to start the training camp and it is the reality of things.
“With that I could get the results I received, good or bad, anyway in the past, but now, with this opportunity, I feel better because I have spent more time in the gym with coach Mike's training regime, surrounded by great hunters that I consider as a family because I see them every day.”
Yair Rodriguez believed that he would be a champion earlier in his career
The inadequate preparations of Yair Rodriguez in the past can be various factors to various factors.
Not only was he unable to set consistent work with his team for a longer period, he admitted in the same interview that his results did not match his own self -belief.
Rodriguez won the interim title at UFC 284, where he submitted Josh Emmett in the second round, but in his opinion he believed that this level of success would come to him in his journey.
Although that natural talent has been there from the moment he entered the octagon for the first time, 'El Pantera' had to learn a number of vital lessons on the way to become an elite featherweight.
“They always had that faith and confidence in me that I could become champions. If you ask me, based on my capacities and my talent, I thought I would be champions before that time, so now? So now things have not gone exactly how I thought or wanted, but I still have losing my focus here.”
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