Athletes
Christian Rodriguez: This Time It's Personal
Talented Milwaukee Native Reflects On Challenging Year Ahead Of His 2024 Debut
“I never want to feel like I felt last year."
Some might find it odd that Christian Rodriguez has a bad association with his 2023 campaign inside the UFC Octagon, given the fact that the now 26-year-old fighter from Milwaukee posted clear decision wins over fellow prospects Raul Rosas Jr. and Cameron Saaiman to extend his record to 10-1, but it’s not what transpired in the cage that left him feeling shattered.
The morning before each of those contests, Rodriguez stepped on the scale and came in above the bantamweight limit. He was a pound-and-a-half above the divisional allowance of 136 pounds for his UFC 287 bout with Rosas Jr. in Miami and a whopping four pounds north of the mark six months later when he stepped in with Saaiman.
Though his hand was raised at the end of each contest, it was impossible for Rodriguez to come away from the encounters feeling like he’d done something worthy of praise.
“It was very rough,” began Rodriguez, reflecting on last year ahead of his first appearance of 2024 — a featherweight engagement with another ascending, unbeaten talent, Isaac Dulgarian. “Obviously, I won, but in my heart, I feel like I didn’t win. A lot of people congratulated me on those wins, but when I look myself in the mirror, I’m very disappointed, which is why I’m very excited for this upcoming year.
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“Last year really affected me a lot. After the Cameron fight, I got pretty down. Everyone would congratulate me, tell me I had a really good fight, but whenever I looked myself in the mirror, I’m like, ‘What am I doing?’
“I wasn’t satisfied. I wasn’t happy,” he added. “Getting paid and winning is every fighter’s dream, but I wasn’t happy with that, which is why this year is very personal for me.”
Sitting in a sparse room on the other side of a Zoom call, Rodriguez struggled to make eye contact when talking about the contrasting highs and lows of the previous year, the weight of those misses having turned into a thousand pounds still resting on his shoulders all these months later.
A long-time member of the Roufusport squad that was forecasted to be a future contender when he was coming up through the ranks, he holds himself to the lofty standards set by those that paved the way for him, and struggles to give himself grace for the missteps and mistakes that have flecked his career.
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Because of who he came up around, it feels like there has always been an expectation for Rodriguez to already be a finished product — a dialed in, unimpeachable pro, despite the fact that he’s just 26 and still figuring things out.
He speaks about the struggles of trying to live a perfect life and it’s clear that he’s at the vanguard of wanting everything regarding his career to be smooth and polished, with miscues and setbacks garnering the lion’s share of the focus when he reflects on what he’s accomplished to this point.
It’s a lot to shoulder.
“There are always expectations because we’re different from a lot of regular people,” he said. “We’re professionals, not amateurs.”
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After the in-cage triumphs and out-of-the-cage defeats of last year, Rodriguez set out to make changes heading into his 2024 campaign.
He took a solo trip to Thailand, trading the frigid winter in Milwaukee for the intense, ever-present heat of the popular training destination, working with the all-star cast at Bangtao Muay Thai & MMA. He started running, not to lose weight, but to clear his mind and feel better, along with making healthier lifestyle choices.
Most importantly, he looked at how the elite talents navigate their careers and recognized that the effort being put in between training camps, when there isn’t a specific opponent or date to work towards, is where the biggest differences are made.
“There are more things, but that was the main thing: really focusing on the out-of-camp life,” offered the naturally quiet Rodriguez, who perked up when the conversation shifted to his return to action on Saturday.
Following his win over Saaiman in October, Rodriguez was asked about potentially adopting the “Prospect Killer” moniker, having dispatched a pair of talented, undefeated emerging fighters in consecutive contests.
He demurred, pointing out that he too is an ascending fighter, still looking to forge his own path in the UFC, but now that he’s penciled in opposite another unbeaten hopeful this weekend, he is a little more open to potentially switching handles if he’s able to emerge victorious in his first appearance of the year.
“Yeah, I’ll take it; I’ll take it,” he said, laughing, when asked about the possible new nickname. “I think it’s good for me, too — it gives you more eyes.
“This would be three prospects. It’s not like I’m up in age, and I think the UFC considers me a prospect also, so someone has to rise up, get more recognition.”
Saturday’s meeting with Dulgarian, who sports a 6-0 mark with six first-round stoppage victories, comes in the featherweight division; the penance Rodriguez must pay for failing to make weight in each of his last two outings.
But it’s not unfamiliar territory for the talented youngster, who made his promotional debut on short notice in the 145-pound ranks, landing on the wrong side of the cards in a clash with Jonathan Pearce in a fight where he was all over Pearce in the final round and elevated his stock despite being saddled with the first and only loss of his career.
“Everything you do has consequences, especially when you mess up,” he said of being shuffled up a division this time around. “I’m grateful they’ve given me another opportunity. They could have been like, ‘No, you can’t make weight; we’re gonna cut you,’ but they gave me an opportunity to move up a weight class.
“Jonathan Pearce is a big dude; he’s tall,” offered Rodriguez, reflecting on his previous trip to featherweight. “I took the fight on five days’ notice. That was the first time I’d gotten into deep waters, and I learned I never look for a way out.
“I knew I was down, so I knew I had to do something, and I found out that even though I was losing, I never looked for a way out; I was always trying to get my hand raised.”
Rodriguez was a different kind of down following a tumultuous year in 2023, but as he readies to embark on his first fight of this year, the only thing he’s still carrying in Saturday’s contest is a serious chip on his shoulder.
“I know my potential, and I know what more I can bring to the table, which is why I’m hard on myself,” he said. “If I lose this one, it’s like, ‘You have trouble making weight and you can’t win at ’45,’ so I’ve got a chip on my shoulder.
“I’m coming with bad intentions. I feel like I have to put myself out there for this one; I can’t have a boring fight. I have to have the performance of a lifetime. The last two, I enjoyed the process of getting the fight, but this one is very, very personal for me.”
UFC Fight Night: Tuivasa vs Tybura took place live from UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 16, 2024. See the final Prelims and Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass.
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