This coming Saturday at UFC Vegas 81, UFC bantamweight Adrian Yanez will look to return to the win column after suffering his first UFC defeat at UFC 287.
Rob Font was the man who stinted Yanez’s win streak six months ago, and this weekend, Yanez (16-4) will hope to bounce back with a win over Jonathan Martinez.
At the UFC Vegas 81 media day, Yanez admitted that he’d been wanting to return to the Octagon sooner than now, and mentioned that he was targeting a return on the September 16 card, which was of course the Mexican Independence Day event.
“Man I’ve been wanting to come back as soon as the doctors cleared me, I wanted to get back in there as soon as possible.
“I’ve been in camp since May because I wanted to get back in there immediately. I was looking for an August or September fight and then it was teased towards me for September 16th and I was like ‘f*** yeah put me on that card.’ It’s kind of a blessing because I’ve gotten more time to work.”
Adrian Yanez and his opponent, Jonathan Martinez, both have extremely fan friendly styles. Martinez who trains out of Factory X, is known for his explosive striking and extremely powerful leg kicks. Yanez eluded that this fight will live up to expectation.
“To me, this is going to be fun for the fans. It’s going to be really really fun for the fans because we’re both strikers, we both want to try and knock eachother out. The way I see the fight playing out obviously is me getting my hand raised.
“He does a really good job of being able to land those calf kicks. He’s just a hard kicker in general. His body kicks hurt, his head kicks hurt, just all in general so it’s not just the calf kicks you have to worry about.”
There has been a recent title change in Yanez’s division of 135lbs, and Sean O’Malley is the one perched on the throne. The Texan believes that with the unpredictability of the sport, he could be near a title shot with two wins.
“There’s a lot of crazy things going on. You’ve got guys who are in the top 5 that are probably not going to get the title shot next. For me, it does open up the division and honestly, with how much goes on, there’s some weird things that happen. Win two and I’m there. It’s right in front of me, and it just opens up everything.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 81 media day appearance from Adrian Yanez above.
