“This is a different level,” he said when comparing the regional MMA circuit to the UFC. “No offense to the local scene, but that’s like Domino’s Pizza, and now we’re dealing with straight from Italy, OG pizza.”
He laughs, and we proceed to discuss the wonders of New York pizza for the next ten minutes. Blasphemy for a Massachusetts native like Rodriguez, but at least the man knows his stuff. But back to the original point, which Rodriguez found out for himself when he lost his Octagon debut to Devin Clark at UFC 223 in Brooklyn.
“Devin Clark was a lot faster than a lot of other guys that I’ve fought,” he said. “He was stronger, he was more explosive, he was more skilled. A lot of things I usually can get away with, I couldn’t get away with. It’s a different ballgame. You’re in the big leagues now.”
Rodriguez dropped a competitive decision to Clark, and another takeaway from the fight for the New Englander was that the tools that got him to the UFC were good enough for the first chapter of his career, but wouldn’t be for the long haul if he had intentions of putting a championship belt around his waist.
“My moves were stale,” Rodriguez said. “I needed new stuff, I needed new tricks. I felt like I was doing the same things and I needed to add some more things to my tool box. When I looked back at the fight, I needed new tools. That’s what it was. I needed new things to handle problems and I needed to develop better habits.”
