Ronaldo Rodriguez aims to steal the show at UFC 306

LAS VEGAS – Ronaldo Rodriguez will get a prime spot at UFC 306, and he plans on making the most of it.

Rodriguez (16-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC) meets Ode Osbourne (12-7 MMA, 4-5 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 306 main card opener at Sphere (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPNews, ESPN+).

Rodriguez was asked his thoughts on the main event between bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley (18-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) and Merab Dvalishvili (17-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC), but “Lazy Boy” is focused on creating his own headlines.

“It’s going to be a great fight. They’re going to stand and bang, but I think I’m going to steal the show,” Rodriguez told MMA Junkie and other reporters through an interpreter at Wednesday’s UFC 306 media day.

His opponent Osbourne had nothing but respect for him when recounting a story about a sparring session that took place at Xtreme Couture just three weeks before their fight was announced. He even called Rodriguez to ask his thoughts on them fighting.

Rodriguez took a different approach when addressing his relationship with Osbourne.

“I hope he doesn’t think that we’re friends because in the cage I’m going to try and rip his head off,” Rodriguez said. “It’s business.”

You can watch the full pre-fight media scrum in the video above.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 306.