Yair Rodriguez has a fight. The former interim featherweight champion will face No. 14-ranked Steve Garcia at UFC 335 on Saturday, Dec. 12, inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Garcia confirmed the booking on Instagram, and MMA Mania followed with the details.
Rodriguez (21-5, 1 NC) was supposed to be back in September, headlining Noche UFC against Jean Silva. An injury pulled him out several weeks before the card. That pushed the comeback to December and means he’ll have been out of competition for about 20 months when he finally walks out. His last appearance came at UFC 314 in April 2025, where he beat Patricio Pitbull by unanimous decision and ruined what was supposed to be a big UFC debut for the Brazilian. That win stopped a two-fight slide that included stoppage losses to Alexander Volkanovski and Brian Ortega.
The schedule has been the problem for years now. The 33-year-old has fought only eight times since the start of 2019, with injuries and long gaps interrupting every bit of momentum he’s put together. When he’s active, he’s a problem for anyone in the division. He just isn’t active very often.
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Garcia (19-6) comes in trying to bounce back. “Mean Machine” had won seven straight before Diego Lopes knocked him out in Round 2 at UFC Freedom 250 in June. That run was loud, too. It included wins over David Onama, Calvin Kattar and Chase Hooper, six of the seven ended early, and he collected four Performance of the Night bonuses along the way. Rodriguez is the biggest name anyone has put in front of him, and beating a former interim champ would get his rebound going right away and could move him toward the top 10.
The card around them is stacked. Charles Oliveira vs. Diego Lopes currently sits at the top, with Sergei Pavlovich vs. Alex Pereira and Brandon Moreno vs. Charles Johnson also on the lineup. So Garcia gets to share a locker room hallway with the man who just put him down, and Hooper, one of the names from his streak, is booked against Chris Padilla on the same night. Matchmakers clearly enjoy a little irony.
My take: I’m picking Garcia. Rodriguez has the better résumé by a mile, and the Pitbull win showed he can still out-skill a quality opponent over 15 minutes. But eight fights in nearly seven years is a pattern, and coming off 20 months away against a guy who finished six of his last seven wins is a rough way to shake off rust. Garcia only needs one clean exchange in the first two rounds, and that’s exactly the window where a long layoff tends to show up. Garcia by stoppage inside two, and if Yair gets to Round 3 with his timing back, I’ll happily eat the pick on Dec. 12.
