Coming off a year in which she only fought once and where her journey to Abu Dhabi in July was marked by lengthy quarantining and limited preparations, the talented Brazilian strawweight was excited about the potential beginning her 2021 campaign with a fight in January could mean for her staying active and getting back to logging multiple trips into the Octagon this year.
“I really would love to have a three-fight year in 2021,” she told me ahead of her bout with Amanda Ribas at UFC 257 in January, back on Fight Island. “And of course, (I want to be) always facing fighters that are well-ranked in my weight class.”
So far, everything has worked out exactly as planned for the 34-year-old Muay Thai stylist fighting out of Florianopolis, who makes the walk for the third time this weekend to face fourth-ranked Mackenzie Dern in her second consecutive headlining assignment.
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After earning an impressive second-round stoppage win over Ribas in January, Rodriguez jumped at the opportunity to face Michelle Waterson in May, the ranked strawweights venturing up to the 125-pound weight class temporarily for the short-notice main event matchup on ESPN. Though the fight came a little sooner than she anticipated returning, the opportunity was too good to pass up, and Rodriguez made the most of it, earning a clean sweep of the scorecards to register her second consecutive victory and extend her record to 14-1-2 overall.
“It was a great opportunity,” she said of the bout with Waterson, where she earned scores of 48-47, 49-46, and 49-46 to register the most high-profile victory of her career. “My coach Marcio Malko knew I was able to fight for five rounds even with the little notice because he has always trained me to fight five rounds since the beginning of my career.”
That foresight from her coach is going to continue serving her well as she steps in for a potential five-round tussle with Dern on Saturday.