​Belal Muhammad says his teammate Yair Rodriguez is moving up to lightweight full-time, a plan he believes makes sense for the 33-year-old former interim featherweight champion. Muhammad floated a potential 155-pound matchup with Rafael Fiziev, who recently earned a knockout win in Baku. Rodriguez, known for his explosive striking, has largely been inactive since 2023 and has losses at featherweight to Alexander Volkanovski in a title-unification bout and to Brian Ortega by submission. Moving up would spare him the brutal 145-pound cut but drop him into the sport’s deepest, most wrestling-heavy division. Nothing is official from Rodriguez or the UFC yet; this is Muhammad’s assessment, not a booking.
Why this move makes sense is body-driven. Rodriguez is coming off a difficult stretch at featherweight and has fought only twice since 2023, going 1-1 with a victory over Patricio Pitbull in April. Moving to 155 would remove the heavy weight cut and give him a fresh start against a different set of contenders. The tradeoff is that the lightweight division’s grappling emphasis could expose the same vulnerabilities he faced at 145. His camp is counting on a healthier, more rested Rodriguez leaning into the chaos that once made him a must-watch finisher.
Muhammad did not hold back when addressing the move, confirming Rodriguez’s shift and then underscoring that the change to 155 is permanent, at least in his view. He even suggested a high-violence matchup against Fiziev as a natural next step, aligning with the recent momentum Fiziev gained after a standout finish in Baku. The idea of Rodriguez versus Fiziev at lightweight is intriguing on paper: Fiziev’s switch-stance kicking and Rodriguez’s taekwondo-rooted offense could deliver pure striking chaos, even if not every matchup ends up delivering as much excitement as it appears in theory.