YAIR RODRIGUEZ IS THE NEW UFC INTERIM FEATHERWEIGHT CHAMPION

UFC Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski is moving up a weight class in tonight's main event to challenge Islam Makhachev for his UFC Lightweight Championship - and instead of making the 145lb division wait for him to settle that business, the UFC decided to book Yair Rodriguez vs Josh Emmett as an INTERIM Featherweight Championship bout in the co-main event of UFC 284 to determine his next opponent.

On paper, that Yair/Emmett matchup is a BANGER with fireworks written all over it. In reality? 

It EXCEEDED everyone's expectations in just two rounds. 

Yair was eating Emmett's body up with kicks like this one early on....

....and Yair was phenomenally hiding punches behind his kicks and switching stances to keep Emmett guessing, but Emmett landed some BOMBS of his own in those two rounds that clearly had an effect on Yair as well. He really may hit as hard as anyone at 145lbs, and Yair ate some crazy shots from him tonight and just kept moving forward. It was tremendous.

At the end of the second round, Yair Rodriguez was able to throw up a perfect triangle choke to tap Emmett out, and he immediately ran into the crowd to drink a beer (that'll get the Australians to love you for sure!) before being crowned champ and doing his post-fight interview with Bisping.

When asked about Volkanovski, who will obviously be his next opponent, Yair kept it super respectful and basically said he's got a fight coming up in a few minutes and I don't want him thinking about anything but that so we can talk about our fight later. 

That will be a slobberknocker and a half when it goes down.

For now, tho - I gotta go, because Volkanovski is walking out for our main event right now!