Yair Rodriguez walked through hell and back to pull off his Hail Mary victory over Chan Sung Jung at UFC Denver.
One second away from losing a grueling war of attrition on the scorecards, Rodriguez knocked out “The Korean Zombie” with a jaw-dropping upwards back-elbow at 4:59 of the fifth round of the pair’s UFC Denver main event. A contest that was already a bonafide ‘Fight of the Year’ contender instantly turned into a ‘Knockout of the Year’ frontrunner as well. And although “El Pantera” may have left the Pepsi Center in rough shape — both he and Jung were transported to a local hospital — Rodriguez’s coach Israel Martinez believes the test of wills the 26-year-old featherweight aced at UFC Denver is the sort of career-changing experience that can transform a good fighter into a great one — even if Martinez doesn’t ever want Rodriguez to go through something like that again.