Yair recently had a talk/ interview with a Mexican youtube channel called "Roberto Mtz" where he told that around a month before the fight he felt an horrible pain on his liver while training so he told Cowboy Cerrone (his friend) about it and Cowboy told him to go immediately to the hospital so his wife (cowboy's wife is a Doctor) could check him, they made some blood test, torso scan and stuff and they found out that Yair had an abnormal ball right on his liver and they said it had high probability to be cancer (later he found out it was a benign and fixable condition). So the UFC asks Yair to fight TKZ on a 2 weeks short notice and he accepts it, he doesn't says a word about his condition to the UFC's medical team and decides to fight with a lot of stuff going on inside of his mind, thinking he was done, that his career and his life were over. Yair said that in the fight week he constantly told himself these words: "If you are already going to die, how do you want to do it? Do you want to die with fear? Do you want to die sad? No, I want to die happy, I'm going to die on my own terms, I'm going to die inside that cage, I'm going to die fighting the toughest motherf*cker from the whole Korea". Yair was not hugging, shaking hands and being kind with TKZ to distract him, he was doing it because that was his goodbye letter to us. Edit: In the same interview he says that the KO was just the cherry on the cake after all the hell he went through, "it was God telling me 'there you go mate'"

Who's here after Max KO at 1 second over Gaethje.

we're not going to see another finish like this in this century. this one is one of a kind and will never be replaced and replicated. for me, this is the most epic finish of all time in any combat sports I've watched.

That has to be the best last second literal mid-air knock out of all MMA time...

yair fight like how we all fight in our head😂

What a pair of badasses! Sportsmanlike behaviour, mutual respect, excellent skills and watching them get out of each of the other's takedowns like vipers on crack. Superb fight with an outrageously unexpectable ending!

Having just seen this fight for the first time (not knowing the outcome) and staying glued the entire time, my mouth uncontrollably fell open when the finish happened. How epic, I doubt we’ll see anything like it in a while. What a fight.

The sportsmanship they had in this fight is one of the reasons why I love fighting sports.

This is one of my favorites fights in UFC history. The date, the event, the styles, the knockout, the context, the expectations, the war between both warriors and of course, the victory of Rodriguez. ¡Vas a ser campeón, pinche Pantera!

There is no friends until it ends. Yair was outstanding, unorthodox, exciting all in one. Great fight from both.

This was just a terrific exhibition of standup. I wanted them both to win. Zombie I felt was ahead, and then, what I thought was a head clash was clearly an elbow from hell. OMG, never seen anything like that. Holy crap! !

One of the best UFC fights and finishes EVER! 2 warriors and 1 vicious fight-ending bell-beating elbow! Wow!

A beautiful display of respect. Probably one of the best fights I've seen.

There will never be something to top this. In nearly 5 full rounds, Yair decidedly had lost the fight. Zombie marches him down in the final seconds, and in the last second of a 1500 second fight, Yair not only gets a great shot, he knocks Zombie out with an unorthodox elbow. Just mind blowing.

Surreal display of kicks, punches and sportsmanship. One of the best fights I have ever watched. Much respect to both fighters

One of best fights I ever saw! 2 great warriors.

There was an interview with the Korean Zombie where he was asked if he regretted the choices he made in the last five seconds of the fight. He replied that his philosophy in fighting is to always go for the finish no matter what the situation and doesn't have any regrets about the ending of the fight because he went down fighting until the end. While I agree with most people that it would've been much better for him to just take the last five seconds off, I couldn't help but respect this man's mindset! War Zombie! And congratulations to Yair

This has been my favorite fight for years! They perfectly matched each other in every aspect & gave the world a hell of a performance. Glad they finally posted it in full.

El Pantera es un orgullo para México uno de los mejores peleadores de México y del mundo

Damn. That was incredible performance from both guys.

That’s the craziest knockout. Still think Zombie shouldn’t have been so friendly, it totally messed up his rhythm at the end.

That was the most unreal finish I have ever seen! I think KZombie was going to win by decision...but what a finish!

I can literally say that was one of the best fight IQ by Yair. How did he pull that elbow?😱😱😱

19:57 Yair showed great awareness when he got hurt. It's like he knew what was coming. More than likely he knew Zombie was gonna try the flying knee follow up so he threw one first. He probably knew how Zombie likes to go for that like he did against Aldo and Porier who he ended up finishing after it.

The amount of respect they showed each other is amazing👏

This and buckley vs kasanganay are prob the most insane KOs of all time

Much respect to both fighters ❤

Such a technical fight on both sides, kind of incredible how much fight IQ each has.

This will forever be the greatest knock out of all time.

The Korean zombie just smiling at all this fancy flying shit Yair was throwing and going "that was cool, here have a jab and 2 straights :)"

Never seen a knockout like that in my life. Cant wait to see more of this from Rodriguez and hope Zombie bounced back ok

Wow that knockout was incredible the fact he lined that up with accuracy,timing and connected gotta respect the art

The wildest ko in ufc history imo

Fight of the year, possibly the decade! One second to go and a KO.

This should have at least a million views.

This fight is hands down one of the best fights in recent UFC history. These dudes beat the shit out of each other the entire fight, and Yair was likely headed toward a loss, but he snuck in the sneakiest shoulder in UFC history

These two gotta do a movie together! 🎬

The true showman of the UFC is called Yair Rodríguez "El Pantera"💪🇲🇽

The level of FOCUS , the awareness of his opponents head at that very second. Theres something special about a fighter like this.

That buzzer beater elbow KO by Yair Rodriguez at the last second is forever iconic 👏👏👏👏

This was the best fight I've seen in a long time. Absolutely incredible.

yair was setting it up in the 4th to execute it in the last seconds is crazy these guys are warriors

Absolutely incredible fight! This is the type of fight that does credit and honor to all facets of the mma itself! What a display of courage, skill, stamina, respect, honor, strength, speed, defense, resilience, power, toughness, determination, will and heart! Damn…what a fight!

Imagine how frustrating must be to lose in the last 5 seconds with a ko, a fight that you would’ve won otherwise..bet he was thinking about those last seconds for a long time, had he made a different choice and not be so aggressive in the end

El mejor nocaut que he visto, mucha técnica de Rodríguez 🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽 viva México 🇲🇽

The best MMA fight i have ever seen..... Thanks Guys

How the hell did he get that amount of power throwing an elbow like that….wow. What a great fight for the ages

Personally I think this is the greatest knockout in UFC history 🔥

I’ve never seen anything like this in the finish. BIGGUPS AND MAJOR RESPECT to be both of these men!!!! Love them both!!!!

I doubt that we'll ever see a more creative k.o than this masterpiece! My absolute favorite!

Holy cow….that was unbelievable!!

Lo mejor. De lo mejor...VIVA MEXICO....Ganarle al Zombi ..no es nada facil...A Rodriguez si le falta mas boxeo..y cabeseo...y no bajar nunca la guardia...Vamooss.Rodriguez tu puedes...

Yair Rodriquez is an amazing athlete and martial artist. His technique is so fluid, cohesive, fast, powerful, adventurous even. His arsenal of kicks is very impressive and those elbows are deadly. I think he could be the next UFC superstar and even world champion. He's also cool as a cucumber in there which is half the battle right there as calm brings lucidity and strong defence and combined with decisive and well timed offensive action is the most effective general.

That break at the near 10 second mark with the commentary saying enough because he was so excited. For me it was so damn perfect, I just thought it’s like an anime where both characters determine to finish on one final attack to settle it and that’s exactly what happened. Too good.

KZ had this fight in the bag by significant strikes alone. He got bamboozled by the gushing friendliness. Amazing finish

unbelievably cardio from yair throwing like that 5 rounds hes dangerous

This fight is sooo underrated.. an incredible fight

I never get tired of watching this fight and especially the last minute, it's amazing.

Esta Es la mejor pelea que he visto nunca!! No me canso de verla..

I think this is one of the best fights I'v ever seen! The respect for each other!

Best fight from this two fighters, full of respect from both of them...

the back story, the 5 round war, and the ko. one of the best fights off all time

That was a crazy fight, and an even crazier ending.

De los mejores Nocaut de la historia de la UFC 🇲🇽😎👌 gracias Yair Rodríguez por tremenda joya✨🇲🇽😎👌

What an excellent fight. What determination came from both fighters. And the creativity of Rodriguez, always flourishing right while eating the shots of the zombie. Awesome. Thx.

here after the 5th round 4:59 knockout from Holloway

amazing. even till this day these 2 fighters bring the fury into the octagon. beautiful stuff.

Even better the 2nd time..Korean Zombie is one of my favorite fighters of all time, i really hope he sticks around the sport in some way.

That was amazing. I've never seen anything like that finish. Incredible.

dad told me about this fight and was not disappointed, great fighters and amazing match!

IM LOVING THIS THANKSGIVING SERIES ❤ even tho I have fight pass and ESPN + 😂

What an incredible fight! Best one I've seen so far! 🔥🔥

What a fight. Unpredictable. The knock out at the end and how it happened, outstanding. One of the best fights I have ever seen. 👏👏👏🙌🙌🙌🔥🔥🔥

grappling sequence at the end of the first was sweet. i’ve been training different combat sports for 13 years for mma and i’ve gotten so much stylistic inspiration from yair, jon jones, and tawanchai. my biggest takeaway from yair’s fights is his unpredictability in striking, footwork, and movement. i added some of his unique strikes to my training as well because of how well he uses them as a mix up, and because they work very well for his body type. jones, tawanchai, and yair are pretty similar in build and watching how they utilize the advantages and disadvantages of it in the stand up massively improved my striking. i think that seeing them do this so effectively is what initially drove me to study them because i have the same body type, it’s kind of like i could relate to their styles and strategies because i am put in similar situations. anyways sorry for the rant i just wanted to express how beneficial watching and studying high level fighters has been for me, i would definitely recommend it if you compete in any combat sport. after years of dedication, training, and competition in various martial arts, my very first professional mma fight is on february 22nd. coming in at 23-3 in amateur with a 18 fight win streak from 2 years of competing is an absolute dream come true. follow your dreams and work hard for them! ✌️

Great fight! What a shocking ending, that night we were stunned almost as much as TKZ was.

Im Here after the ufc 300, BMF belt fight between Holloway & Gaethje, the "LETS THROW DOWN" 😮for the last 10 seconds of the fight, knocking Gaethje out with 1 second to go, is pretty close to this ending, lets put it this way, they both make me smile 😊 They both fell the same way too, hitting the ground...

incredible fight, incredible finish

Rodriguez is a brilliant fighter, stylist fighter, strong fighter in UFC history

Man watching this fight all the way through knowing what is coming at the very end is intense

Commentator: That's a headbutt, that's a headbutt. Until he saw the replay.

Lol i did not expect that ending Holy cow 😱😂🤣 thats insane what a crazy fight.

still can't believe this K.O. never even mentioned in top K.O.s of the decade

You know you're badass when your cage name is used more than your real name

Came here right after Max vs Justin

heck of a fight. i have never seen zombie knocked out. he can take some punishment & seldom slows down. never seen yair fight before. i never understood the rolling kicks? he tried. gaethe trys the same sort of things.very even i thought until elbow caught the zombie. ref. had a easy job that night. much respect to both fighters.

Grandes deportistas, execelente desempeño de ambos, simplemente dieron todo,par de guerreros,desde SALTILLO COAHUILA, VIVA MÉXICO 🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽!!!

Unbelievable, ive never been so gutted to see such an amazing knock out, zombie deserved that win as much as Rodriguez, i was actually thinking at round 4, how the hell arw they gunna decide this fight if it went the distance...both absolute warriors

Yair Rodriguez is an extraordinary striker. I sensed this from beginning of this bout. His tactics are truely mind-blowing.

WOW!! Holy shit , I didn't see this fight until tonight. The very last second , incredible!! What a damn war!

Amazing fighters, amazing fight, unpredictable and diverse tactics, high tension, never seen an elbow upper cut like that before.

Hand Down 1 of BEST Fights i Ever seen

That has got to be the most crucial last second knockout in UFC history. What a fight!

Wow!! Great fight...gotta be in the top 10.

BEAUTIFUL FIGHT, I LOVE THEM

MMA at it's best. Skill, sportmanship, excitment. Legend !

one of the best fights i ever seen, real true sportsmen.

It was so sad to me when they gave each other high fives and, clearly, did not want to keep hurting each other, but the cost to stop fighting was too high. They each have to support their families, and struggle their struggles in life, so the fight continues...

What an amazing fight!!!

Amazing ! Both of them are warriors ! And what a finish ! Greetings from France

Hermosa pelea de ambos, Yair Rodríguez y the korean zombie. El knock out de Yair La Pantera Rodríguez es de genio ❤❤❤❤