LAS VEGAS — Five years ago, the UFC went to Mexico City to pay belated homage to Mexican Independence Day with a fight card headlined by Chihuahua’s own Yair Rodriguez and Jeremy Stephens. It honestly couldn’t have gone worse if a million locusts descended on the Mexico City Arena.
A flyweight straight out of the pages of 19th century Russian literature named Askar Askarov fought Mexico’s own Brandon Moreno to a kissing cousin’s draw in the swing bout that night, right before Guadalajara’s Alexa Grasso took a drowsy drubbing at the hands of Carla Esparza. If all that weren’t buzzkill enough, Rodriguez — the prescribed hero of the night — poked Stephens in the eye just 15 seconds into the main event, rendering him unable to continue.