Las Vegas, NV – Just a couple of months removed from the madness that was UFC 279, welterweight Daniel Rodriguez faces Neil Magny at UFC Vegas 64 on Saturday night.
Rodriguez (17-2) rides a 4-fight win streak into the UFC APEX against Magny coming off a nasty elbow infection that forced his fight to be pushed to this weekend.
“About a couple weeks ago I had a staph infection in my elbow. I had like a little cut on my elbow from the last fight. You know I jumped right back into camp and facing Neil Magny I jumped right back on the wrestling mats and got a little infection in my elbow,” Rodriguez told reporters on Wednesday.
Rodriguez explained that it took a couple days for the infection to clear up, but that they had to push the fight back a couple weeks in order to make it to the fight healthy.
“It kind of gave me like a little break actually because I was just jump right back into camp and I was in the process of moving back to California,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez went on to say that when he went to doctors to find out if he could fight they told him that his infection was actually quite bad.
“It was like actually really bad. I’ve never had an infection like that or anything like that. I asked ‘See if he’s down to fight in a couple weeks’ and everybody’s like I don’t know man these antibiotics are going to mess you up,” he said.
Lucky for him Magny was fine with pushing the fight to UFC Vegas 64.
Rodriguez was supposed to fight Kevin Holland at UFC 279, but following a re-shuffle of the top three fights after fellow welterweight Khamzat Chimaev missed weight, Rodriguez missed out on the fight.
“You know I really wanted to fight Kevin Holland. That’s what I was looking forward to, I’m looking forward to fighting him sometime in the future. I’m down to fight him next. Winner of him vs. Wonderboy. I’m waiting for him, you know,” said Rodriguez.
The chaos that was UFC 279 moved Holland onto fighting Chimaev leaving Rodriguez to wonder if he was even going to have a fight on the card.
“I was a little disappointed in Kevin at the time. I’m like, ‘Yo what are you doing bro?’. I’m the guy. I’m the f*cking person you’ve got to be worried about right now. Why are you trying to fight this dude?,” Rodriguez said.
“He had messaged me that morning like ‘Hey man they want me to fight Khamzat’ this and that and I’m like alright. So what about me, you know?”
Ultimately Li Jingliang accepted the very short-notice bout with Rodriguez ensuring that he would have a fight on the card.
“I’m still getting asked ‘Yo are you ever going to fight Holland’. I feel like he’s a dude that I have to fight. He’s a chapter in my career that I have know what the f*ck is going to happen or what would have happened,” Rodriguez said.
“We’re fighters. I’m going to fight all these dudes. So at some point I would like to fight him.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Daniel Rodriguez above. He takes on Neil Magny at UFC Vegas 64 on Saturday night.
