Yair Rodriguez is preparing to headline UFC Fight Night 103 against UFC Hall Of Fame member BJ Penn, it will be his second main event under the UFC banner. Rodriguez looks to advance further into the featherweight top 10, he is current ranked #10, but as Rodriguez tells it, he knows he's destined for a top spot.
?I?m a champion,? Rodriguez told MMA Junkie. ?Since I was a kid, I knew I was a champion. I know I?m different. I?m a different kind of animal. All the people around me know that. I know that.?
While Rodriguez is happy to be fighting the former UFC Lightweight and Welterweight Champion, it wasn?t a fight he was expecting.
?B.J. is saying that I asked for this fight, and I never asked for this fight,? Rodriguez said. ?I don?t know who told him that. The UFC just offered me the fight, and I said yes, so here we are, preparing ourselves to get in a war on Jan. 15. I don?t know who told B.J. that I was asking for the fight, but he is wrong. I actually never knew that he was coming back from his retirement until the UFC offered me the fight, so here I am, fighting B.J.?
UFC Fight Night 103 takes place on Sunday, January 15 from the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona with Yair Rodriguez and BJ Penn headlining.