Adrian Yanez and Daniel Marcos threw down in a promising bantamweight tilt on the UFC Tampa main card on Saturday.
The final event of 2024 for the UFC found Yanez looking for his second win of the year, as was Marcos (who also had a No Contest against Aoriqileng). It was going to be interesting to see how their striking styles were going to clash. Was Yanez’s boxing approach going to be enough to beat Marcos’ kicking game?
Both fighters came out firing on all cylinders, landing big on each other. A big right hand from Marcos stunned Yanez, but Yanez’ survival instincts along the fence allowed him to recover and survive temporarily. An eye poke and a low blow by Marcos forced a stop in the action. Yanez, maybe still feeling the effects of the big right hand, is wise to take as much time to recover from the fouls. Once they get back to it, Marcos was looking to land his overhand over Yanez’s jab. Marcos, learning from Jonathan Martinez’s win over Yanez, was landing multiple kicks to Yanez’s lead leg. In the clinch, Marcos attempted a takedown that Yanez stuffed, but landed a good elbow on the break. Fun round that Marcos takes 10-9 due to that early right hand.
A big left hook from Yanez early in the second hurt Marcos. A fake spin to a right straight landed for Marcos, who then landed another right that stumbled Yanez a bit. The Peruvian fighter was doing a good of landing first and third, allowing him to win more exchanges. Yanez was landing just about every low kick he threw, but didn’t throw as many as the commentary team would’ve liked. A failed flying knee by Marcos was countered by a left hook that he ate on the chin. The round ended with a clubbing right overhand by Marcos. A very close and competitive round that I personally gave to Yanez because his early left hook was the biggest shot of the round.
With both fighters thinking the fight was tied, they entered the final round throwing haymakers. Yanez landed yet another left hook that buckled Marcos, but “Soncora” stayed in the pocket to land shots of his own. Marcos used his forward momentum to take a stumbling Yanez to the ground. That was the first time we saw Yanez on his back in the UFC since he came into this fight with a 100% takedown defence rate. Not much happened on the ground and Yanez worked his way back to his feet. As they clinched, Yanez tried to get his takedown, but failed to complete it. As Marcos shot again, Yanez attempted a guillotine on the way down, but Marcos was wise to it. Yanez eventually got back to the feet again. Both were taking deep breaths in the clinch, which was perfectly understandable with such a pace late in the third. Marcos appeared to be the more tired of the two, but Yanez failed to press on the gas pedal in the final minute. Unfortunately for Yanez, his early left hook wasn’t enough to overcome the control time accrued by Marcos.
A super fun back-and-forth and a candidate for Fight of the Night. With this being the best win of his career, the fighter out of Peru stayed undefeated and moved to 17-0.
Official Result: Daniel Marcos def. Adrian Yanez by Split Decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
