Mike Rodriguez was told to stay ready. Now, for the second time in three short weeks, he is getting back in the cage.
Mike Rodriguez was told by manager Tyson Chartier and head coach Joe Lauzon to stay ready after he defeated Prachnio a little over two weeks ago. For good reason. Now, after a camping trip with his family, light heavyweight Rodriguez (11-4) is ready to make another walk to octagon at UFC Vegas 10.
“I didn’t think a week and a half later [I’d be fighting],” Rodriguez laughed, speaking to Cageside Press. “After we beat Prachnio, my coaches were at the airport and we got a group chat going. They texted me ‘yo stay ready,'” Rodriguez continued.
“I had some family stuff after. As soon as I got home, I went to do a little camping, and after I went camping, I came back home and Tyson [Chartier] called me and was like ‘didn’t I tell you to be ready, didn’t I tell you to be ready?'” Rodriguez played along, taking the bait and asking what his manager had for him. “I got a fight for you,'” was the reply. “Oh, snap!” Upon hearing the name Ed Herman, Rodriguez said “I was excited, I’m pumped, I was like ‘yeah, yeah, f*ck that, run it, let’s do it!'”
Rodriguez will be stepping in the cage against savvy veteran in Ed Herman, who currently rides a two fight win streak. There’s more to it than that, however. “Short Fuse” is a fighter Rodriguez watched back when he was in high school, just a young fan of the sport. Even better, a close friend of Rodriguez happened to be a big Ed Herman fan — but not anymore. At least not for this fight.
“Ed Herman’s the man,” Rodriguez told Cageside Press. “Funny story, I’ll make y’all feel old, when he fought Kendall Grove, I was a sophomore in high school. Me and one of my closest friends, Harley, we watched the whole season [of The Ultimate Fighter] together. We would always come to school the next day, talk about it. He came to my house to watch the finale, so we were watching the finale in my living room. He was an Ed Herman fan,” Rodriguez continued. “So as soon as I got the fight, I called him and said ‘let me tell you something, I’m fighting your boy.’ He said ‘who?'” Ed Herman, of course, was the reply. “He yelled ‘OHHHH, for real? Well he ain’t my boy no more!'”
Rodriguez is looking to secure his second win in under a month against Herman. With that hopeful victory, while not overlooking Herman in the slightest, in a wide open division, Rodriguez hopes a name with a number comes next when he gets the call from his manager again.
When asked where a win over Herman puts him in the division, Rodriguez responded “good question, I’m not really sure.”
“Honestly after Saturday, after beating Ed Herman, I think the next thing for me they would obviously give me somebody with a number, a top 15 guy,” Rodriguez told Cageside Press. “Y’all know what I can do, I’ve had hiccups but you’ve seen what I can do. Ed Herman is on a two fight win streak so I beat him, that’s a lot of credibility. But I’ve just got to focus on him [Herman].”
Catch the full interview above, where Mike Rodriguez speaks on his love for video games (gives a top 5 all time list), talks about Lauzon MMA and more. Rodriguez returns this Saturday, September 12 against Ed Herman at UFC Vegas 10 in Las Vegas.
