UFC News & FeaturesRivalries: Adrian Yanez
Adrian Yanez soon gets another chance to do justice to the cloth from which he was cut.
The 29-year-old Texan will attempt to reassert himself in the Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight division when he takes on Jonathan Martinez in a featured UFC Fight Night 230 attraction this Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Yanez enters the Octagon with wins in nine of his past 10 outings but finds himself on the rebound following his first stoppage loss as a pro. One of the promotion’s most consistent offensive performers, he has been awarded five post-fight bonus performances in less than three years on the UFC roster.
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Miles Johns
A ruthless clinch game, timely takedowns and a sharp jab carried the Fortis MMA export to a split decision—49-46, 47-48, 48-47—over Yanez, as he laid claim to the vacant Legacy Fighting Alliance bantamweight championship in the LFA 55 main event on Nov. 30, 2018 at The Bomb Factory in Dallas. Johns stayed true to his game plan for 25 minutes. He crowded the skilled Yanez in close quarters, completed takedowns in the second and third rounds, kept his head moving in standup exchanges and unleashed repeated jabs that eventually bloodied the Saul Soliz protégé’s nose. Even so, it was a struggle. Yanez kept him guessing with stance switches and feints, leaned into his counters and switched gears late in the bout. He did his best work in Round 5, where he threatened Johns with a tight guillotine choke, zeroed in on the body with punches and knees, scored with an educated jab of his own and won a majority of the scrambles. Yanez’s efforts went for naught.
Brady Huang
Yanez needed less than a minute to put away the Dragon House MMA rep with first-round punches, as he nailed down a UFC contract during Week 2 of Dana White’s Contender Series on Aug. 11, 2020 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Huang succumbed to blows 39 seconds into Round 1, the victim of what was at the time the fifth-fastest finish in the history of the series. Yanez barely broke a sweat. The Bellator MMA alum buckled Huang’s knees with a clean left hook, reset and then connected with a vicious multi-punch combination that was punctuated with another left hook and a chopping right hand. A dazed and confused Huang stumbled backward, prompting referee Jason Herzog to intervene on his behalf.
Davey Grant
Superior efficiency allowed Yanez to maintain his upward trajectory at 135 pounds when he eked out a split decision over “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 18 finalist in a UFC Fight Night 198 bantamweight showcase on Nov. 20, 2021 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Judges Junichiro Kamijo and Eric Colon scored it 29-28 for Yanez, while judge Tony Weeks raised more than a few eyebrows with a 30-27 nod to Grant. Yanez took some time to get going. Grant zeroed in on him with an active kicking game and did everything he could to lure him into an ugly firefight. Yanez refused to bite and instead leaned on clean jab-cross combinations and occasional kicks of his own. The evidence of his work was painted on Grant’s face, blood streaming from a cut on the bridge of his nose. Yanez outstruck the respected Englishman by narrow margins in the second and third rounds, doing just enough to get by on the scorecards.
Rob Font
The New England Cartel cornerstone cut down Yanez with punches in the first round of their UFC 287 bantamweight feature on April 8, 2023 at the Kaseya Center in Miami. Font drew the curtain 2:57 into Round 1, denying the burgeoning Metro Fight Club star entry to the bantamweight elite. Yanez marked up the former CES MMA champion with searing counter right hands and kept him guessing with a few low kicks. However, his chin could not withstand the heat that was sent back his way. Font connected with a surgical one-two, gave chase with punches and floored the Texan with a sweeping right hook. Yanez hit the canvas, where he was met with a hailstorm of hammerfists that necessitated the stoppage.
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