Daniel Rodriguez praises “The Leech” Li Jingliang’s punching power after their three-round bout at UFC 279. Rodriguez walked away with a split decision win here, but not unscathed.
UFC 279, What Went Down?
“The Leech” faced off against Daniel Rodriguez in a three-round catchweight bout at UFC 279 after some shuffling of the card due to Khamzat Chimeav missing weight. Both men took the fight on short notice and still put on a show for fans. Li Jingliang had a lot of success during this fight, catching “D-Rod” multiple times throughout rounds. With an excellent display of striking and Li Jingliang controlling the pace, many fans thought this was a huge win for the underdog. However, Daniel Rodriguez walked away with the victory via split decision. This left many fans, and even UFC president Dana White confused, with many dubbing the fight as a robbery. Li Jingliang appeared to agree with fans as he wore a t-shirt in a recent interview with “ROBBED” written across it.
LI Jingliang Has Lost His Place in the Rankings
For Li Jingliang, it seemed as though the odds were stacked against him. He missed out on facing UFC legend Tony Ferguson. Where a win would’ve catapulted his career to new heights, instead, he was ordered to fight Daniel Rodriguez, a much bigger fighter in size. To make matters worst, Li was also looking to show off his custom-made suit at the UFC 279 presser. But the backstage altercation led to this being cancelled, and his suit not seeing the light of day. After taking a loss to Daniel Rodriguez, he has also lost his place in the rankings.
Daniel Rodriguez Reacts to the Leech’s Power
In a recent interview, Daniel Rodreguez praised the leech for his power. He said the following “He rocked me almost every time he hit me. I was like, ‘What the f**k just happened?’ Like I was blacked out. I was like, ‘Holy fuk.’ That happened twice. Three times I was like, ‘where am I?’”. Daniel Rodriguez also took to social media recently after some backlash following his win. He wrote, “Everyone talking sh*t saying I lost !!! Let’s rematch !!!”.
Unfortunately for both fighters, they were given new opponents on incredibly short notice. With a full camp, would we see a different fight play out?
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
