Yair Rodriguez opens up about abrupt departure from UFC

It wasn’t long ago that Yair Rodriguez was earmarked as the UFC’s next featherweight star.
A 25-year-old with Mexican roots and a flashy, fan-friendly fighting style, Rodriguez had been hailed as one of the premier rising talents at 145 pounds since he entered the UFC in 2014 fresh off a victorious run on The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America. That vast untapped potential made it all the more stunning last week when the UFC abruptly cut “El Pantera” from the organization.