Former UFC champ Robert Whittaker responds to trash talk from ‘emotional’ Yair Rodriguez

Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has responded to a bit of trash talk from a fairly surprising source: featherweight contender Yair Rodriguez.

Mexico’s Rodriguez is one of the top contenders in the UFC featherweight division at the moment. However, he was decisively beaten by Australian champion Alexander Volkanovski just a few years ago, and is widely seen as less deserving of a title shot than Russia’s Movsar Evloev, who has never lost a fight.

For that reason, fans were quite disappointed when Evloev was booked for a fight with former Bellator star Aaron Pico. The reason being that it implied Rodriguez would be given another crack at Volkanovski.

Whittaker, Volkanovski’s fellow Australian, shared that opinion.

Robert Whittaker tells Yair Rodriguez to ‘chill out’ after he got mad at him for saying no one wanted to see Yair vs Volk 😭

“He’s an emotional guy… he’s gotta chill out.”

🎥 @MainEventTV #UFC #MMApic.twitter.com/swgJg6ajdS

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) June 5, 2025

“Mate, no one wants to see this fight,” Whittaker said, noting that Rodriguez is 1-1 in his last two, with a loss to Brian Ortega and a win over Patricio Freire. “No one. No one was sitting at home saying, you know what fight I want to run back? Volk and Yair.”

Rodriguez, who once held the UFC interim featherweight title, didn’t respond well to that take. He lashed out at Whittaker in a comment on Instagram, taking a shot at the Aussie for losing some teeth in a recent fight with Khamzat Chimaev.

“I didn’t ask for your opinion, ‘mate.’ Focus on your own sh*t so you don’t get your teeth broke again,” an ornery Rodriguez wrote in response.

Robert Whittaker laughs off trash talk from fellow UFC fighter Yair Rodriguez

During an appearance on Australia’s Main Event TV, Whittaker responded to Rodriguez’s fiery comment. The former UFC champ could only laugh it off.

“Is that what he posted? Sorry bro,” Whittaker said between chuckles. “He’s an emotional guy. I’ve backed him in a lot of his fights. I’ve said only good things. I didn’t even say anything negative to him. He’s got to chill a little bit. It was just couch talk. If we look at it from an objective point of view, he lost to [Volkanovski]. He lost to Ortega. He had a win against ‘Pitbull’ [Freire], but nothing crazy. It makes sense.”

Whittaker then suggested it makes more sense for Rodriguez to fight his fellow Mexican Diego Lopes next. Lopes, of course, was beaten by Volkanovski earlier this year.

Do you agree with Whittaker on this one, or is Rodriguez right to be upset?