A much heavier opponent at UFC DC made Marina Rodriguez consider rejecting the bout, but she chose to fight on.
Washington, D.C. — Marina Rodriguez was faced with a heavier-than-planned opponent at UFC DC on Satuday. That’s thanks opponent Cynthia Calvillo badly missing weight for the pair’s co-main event strawweight fight. Calvillo clocked in at 120.5lbs, a full 4.5lbs over the strawweight non-title limit.
The end result was a draw, one of two on the night (the other belonged to Cody Stamann vs. Song Yadong). Not the outcome Rodriguez envisioned, and not one she necessarily agreed with, she told reporters including Cageside Press via translator following the bout.
“I believe that I did enough to win the fight,” Rodriguez said backstage. “All the striking that happened in the fight was won by me. She did win the grappling side, but it wasn’t as much considering how much striking there was. But at the end of the day, I was grappling with a 125lb grappler.”
Rodriguez (12-0-2) now has the dubious distinction of having two draws in four UFC fights. She remains undefeated as a professional however. Or as she put it, “my 0 is still there, so I live to fight another day.”
Another day that will not involve Cynthia Calvillo, she added when asked about running the fight back. “I don’t see a point in having a rematch right now. The main thing, I want to fight someone who can make the weight next time around. There’s no point in risking fighting against a flyweight again.”
Asked by Cageside Press if she ever considered turning down the fight, Rodriguez answered that “honestly it was something that we did discuss.”
“But at the end of the day, I trained, and I came here to fight,” she continued. “It didn’t matter if she was heavier or anything, I came here to fight. That’s a problem between her and the UFC now, how they’re going to sort that out.”
Rodriguez knew there was a significant risk giving up so much weight, however. “I was fighting a grappler who was way heavier than me, and if it did come to the ground, we knew there was going to be a problem.”
“I was putting so much on the line. I was ranked higher than her,” Rodriguez noted. Not to mention her undefeated record, which at least remains intact with the draw.
“I hope the UFC looks at that,” she added, “and takes it into consideration when they think about me next time around.”
Watch the full UFC DC post-fight press scrum with Marina Rodriguez above!
