Fortunes changed for five at UFC Fight Night 92

Saturday night’s UFC debut in Salt Lake City seemed from the start to have one purpose: establishing Yair Rodriguez as a star. The 23-year-old Rodriguez was the winner of the first season of The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America, which was a big hit on Televisa in Mexico. He was the focal point of the show’s promotion. UFC used Saturday to put him in his first main event. Alex “Bruce Leroy” Caceres seemed like a good showcase opponent, someone who would give Rodriguez an entertaining fight. Rodriguez brings a flashy style of crazy kicks, from his taekwondo background. In some ways, he’s reminiscent of a young Cung Le. Being born in Mexico, he fits a key demographic for UFC. Because Mexico has a long history in supporting both boxing and pro wrestling, Dana White has always noted the feeling UFC could explode in that country, even though it took longer than they originally anticipated to get in. But now they are established and run regularly. While at times the shows have drawn good television ratings and Cain Velasquez is a legitimate star in that country, Velasquez was born in the U.S. Erik Perez was first pushed in that role as the top native star, and got good play in the Mexican media. Rodriguez is younger and stylistically stands out more, plus got great exposure on the reality show. Rodriguez (9-1) defeated Caceres (12-9, 1 no contest) via split decision in a main event that delivered 25 minutes of a largely entertaining fight. The split decision was shocking, since most besides the judges seemed to think Rodriguez was cruising to a win. Of the 19 reporters scorecards on MMADecisions.com, all had Rodriguez winning, with 18 of them having him already clinched the fight going into the final round. Yet, had Caceres won the last round, he would have won what would have been perhaps the most disputed unanimous decision of the year. Even though Rodriguez outstruck Caceres in all five rounds, Caceres did get on top in a scramble and did damage in round three, and won that round. After that, perhaps one could argue a close fourth round, one all three judges gave Caceres yet virtually nobody else did. Rodriguez nearly doubled the number of significant strikes in the fight, 120-62, and only the fifth round, which Rodriguez had a 29-22 edge according to Fightmetric.com stats, was even close. The Derek Cleary scorecard of 49-46 in favor of Caceres was one of the most perplexing of the year. It was such that it was heavily speculated it must have been either a clerical error, or he mixed up the fighters. But his giving Rodriguez round two, the round he was most dominant in, as well as giving Caceres round three, indicates the latter wasn’t the case. And historically, Cleary is not a bad judge. Thus far in 2016, he’s judged 34 UFC and Bellator fights that have gone …

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