Highlights! Volk Drops And Stops Rodriguez In Three!

“The Great” continued his domination of the Featherweight division, taking out “El Pantera” with relative ease in their fight inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Alexander Volkanovski defended his Featherweight title again, defeating Yair Rodriguez via technical knockout in the third round in the pay-per-view (PPV) main event of UFC 290, which took place tonight (Sat., July 8, 2023) inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The beginning of the end came near the end of the third round — a round that Rodriguez was winning on our unofficial scorecards. After two rounds stuck on the canvas, Rodriguez finally managed to create the space he needed to land some serious kicks upside the dome of “The Great.” But, as the round wound down, Volkanovski landed a big right hand that knocked “El Pantera” back into the cage. He was clearly hurt and Volkanovski took advantage, landing a body shot and then dumping Rodriguez to the canvas with a big takedown.

From there, Volkanovski unloaded with ground-and-pound on Rodriguez, who covered up until referee, Herb Dean, stepped in to stop the fight at 4:19 of round three.

Watch the highlights and finish below care of ESPN:

The win moves Volkanovski to 13-1 in UFC and 26-2 across mixed martial arts (MMA). The win over Rodriguez marks Volkanovski’s fifth successful Featherweight title defense. Following the win, he suggested his next defense could come against Ilia Topuria, and then said he was coming for the 155-pound belt as well.

He also mentioned a looming “surgery,” but we will put that off to the side as we celebrate Volkanovski’s triumphant return to 145 pounds.

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