Athletes
Christian Rodriguez | This One Means Everything
Talented Featherweight Talks Shift In Mindset, Approach Ahead Of Clash With Austin Bashi
Chasing perfection is a never-ending pursuit, and holding the notion out there as a target when it’s something that doesn’t actually exist is the kind of thing that could make you go crazy.
For a number of years, Christian Rodriguez was running that particular fool’s errand, allowing the missteps of his past and the worries about his future to leave him unsettled in the present.
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“I think throughout these (last couple) years and just getting older, I’m starting to realize that as much as we want perfection, there is no such thing,” said the 27-year-old featherweight, who welcomes Austin Bashi to the UFC this weekend in a compelling main card fixture. “It’s like in life: we want all these things, but it doesn’t always go our way.
“Everybody is human, and I finally started to realize — I was always so hard on myself, but I finally realized that I’m human; I’m gonna f*** up.”
Rodriguez grinned, the hint of a chuckle even sneaking out before he continued.
“I think the most important thing is trying to be better every single day, and that’s something I wasn’t doing before. I was going (through the) motions, rather than looking at myself in the mirror and asking, ‘Did I better myself as an athlete and a human today?’ That’s something I’ve really been embracing this last year.”
Reading more and aligning further with his coaches are two pieces Rodriguez cites as having contributed to his change of outlook in the last several months, but the greatest influence, he said, is his girlfriend.
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“She has been really helping me understanding that everyone’s destiny is written already,” said the Roufusport product, who looks to bounce back after suffering a first-round submission loss to Julian Erosa last time out. “One thing she tells me is that I’m exactly where I need to be right now, and that’s something that has really been helping me a lot.
“There has been a lot of weight off my shoulders,” admitted Rodriguez, now that he’s no longer trying to live up to the lofty expectations that accompanied him to the UFC and his own ideas about what he should have already accomplished and achieved by this point of his career. “The other thing that has been helping me is (understanding) that the only thing I can control is what I do today. I’ve been a really anxious person — I would worry about my past, worry about the future, and it’s like, nothing is promised, so the only thing I can control is today.”
With the shift in mindset has come a shift in preparation, including adding a new element to his routine.
Every athlete is different when it comes to the amount of film they watch and how they work to get a read on their forthcoming opponent. Some choose to off load that work to their coaches, allowing them to relay the information or simply build a game plan around the tendencies they see while combing through recent appearances. Others are far more hands-on, believing it’s best that they sit down and study the person that is going to be standing across from them, so that they fully comprehend the challenges and dangers that await them inside the Octagon.
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Rodriguez used to be part of the former class but has since made the move to the latter ranks.
“I think before, I was going through the motions, as I was saying. I wasn’t a big film guy before because one of my main things was feeling out people in the moment and adjusting. Like the (Reyes) Cortez fight, I probably watched two minutes of him total and was like, ‘All right, I got this.’
“But now, I’m taking film work way more serious; see what he’s good with and work from there, and that’s where I kind of slept on Erosa,” continued Rodriguez. “I thought, ‘Okay, he’s a good jits guy with good striking,’ but I f***** up because he’s got a really good guillotine.”
In the closing seconds of a competitive first round with the fluid, all-action veteran, Rodriguez left his neck exposed while working from top position and looking to push Erosa back into the fence. The gangly featherweight wrapped his left arm over Rodriguez’ head just as Paul Felder announced, “He’s gotta watch his neck here; Julian’s looking for a guillotine,” on the broadcast.
Seconds later, the fight was over.
“Against veterans, you can’t make mistakes — they’ve been in the game for so long that if you give them one opportunity, they’re gonna snatch it.”
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The loss halted a three-fight run of success that didn’t carry the typical wave of positive emotions for Rodriguez, despite the fact that he’d beaten a trio of promising, unbeaten talents.
In 2023, the Milwaukee native earned consecutive unanimous decision wins over Dana White’s Contender Series grads Raul Rosas Jr. and Cameron Saaiman, handing each man the first loss of their careers. In both cases, Rodriguez missed weight, which automatically took some of the shine off his performances.
He moved up to featherweight to begin last year, and continued his winning ways in March, landing on the favorable side of a split decision verdict in a bout with Isaac Dulgarian that many felt should have gone the other way.
And much like how they made sure to remind him constantly that his wins over Rosas Jr. and Saaiman were tainted by his weight miss, folks on the internet made a point of telling Rodriguez he didn’t deserve to beat Dulgarian, either.
The loss to Erosa only compounded matters for Rodriguez, who opted to pack his bags for Bali, dive head-first into training, and work on shifting his mindset and approach.
Now, armed with a new outlook — and a new hairstyle inspired by Charles Oliveira and the Chute Boxe Diego Lima crew — “CeeRod” is ready to get back to work, starting this weekend against Bashi.
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“I didn’t think they would give me a prospect,” he said with a smile, silently acknowledging his history of upending unbeaten talents inside the Octagon. “I was surprised they offered me Bashi, and I was like, ‘Hell Yeah!’”
A member of the Dana White’s Contender Series Class of ’24, Bashi arrives on the biggest stage in the sport with a load of hype and an unbeaten record, having won each of his 13 professional bouts to date. Eight of those contests have ended inside the distance, and while Rodriguez has rightfully been impressed by the efforts his pending opponent has put in thus far, he’s eager to show him that things are very different once you’re competing in the UFC.
“I’m comfortable in the UFC, in that Octagon, (and I expect) this is going to be another grueling fight,” he said of his main card assignment against the promotional newcomer. “I know he has a good gas tank, but it’s always been a one-sided fight for him; he’s smoked all his opponents.
“That’s great for him, but it’s different when someone knows what they’re doing.”
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Not only does Rodriguez know what he’s doing, but he’s also returned to doing what got him to this stage in the first place as well.
“I’m always digging, and I always know I can dig more, and that’s something we saw in the Dulgarian fight. In the third round, I was so f****** gassed — we were both f****** tired — but there was something in me where I knew I could dig more.
“I think in the last two fights at ’45, the cuts are easier on my body, but for this one, I had to go back to the way I trained when I made to make ’35,” he added. “I had to go back into the trenches. I had to dig every single day.
“The last two fights I was a little too comfortable because it’s easier on the weight, so for this one, I was like, ‘I’ve got to be on the grind every day.’”
Over the last few months, he’s done that, and now Rodriguez is eager to make the walk to the Octagon and claim the most meaningful victory of his career this weekend.
“It’s gonna mean everything to me; it’s been a rough year. The Cameron fight, after that was hard on my mental game because the whole world was coming at me. After that was the Dulgarian one, with people saying I lost, and then the Erosa loss.
“It’s been a lot of ups and downs, but I really had to reset — in terms of my life, in terms of my focus — and I’m very excited for this one and it’s going to mean everything to win this fight.”
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