Adrian
Yanez may be his own harshest critic.
Yanez (17-5) triumphantly rebounded from a skid of two straight
knockout losses by blasting Vinicius
Salvador at UFC Fight Night 241 on May 18. Yanez subsequently
called out unranked up-and-comers Victor
Henry and Daniel
Santos, with the latter having already accepted the callout.
Yanez also aimed high, eyeing Deiveson
Figueiredo, but believes it’s a long shot. Yanez recently
talked with MMA
Junkie, where he discussed his plans to work his way back up
the ladder.
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“If I’m trying to eek my way in, trying to somehow squeak my way in
to fight someone in the top 15, I feel like I would like to fight
someone like ‘Figgy’ [Deiveson
Figueiredo]. I feel like just because of the fact that he
fought Brandon
Moreno a couple of times, my favorite fighter is Brandon
Moreno,” Yanez explained.
A fight against Figueiredo may be off the table for now, as “Deus
da Guerra” recently agreed to face Marlon Vera
at UFC Abu Dhabi on Aug. 3. Yanez may have aimed high for that
particular name, but he has tempered his expectations. The Texan
came into the UFC and amassed five straight wins to claim a ranked
spot at 135 pounds. However, consecutive stoppage losses to
Rob
Font and Jonathan
Martinez in 2023 sent him tumbling down the leaderboard.
Although he picked up a big win his last time out, Yanez is
otherwise pumping the brakes on pursuing ranked opposition
again.
“I did two wrongs, now I gotta make three rights,” Yanez stated. “I
gotta go out there and for every five steps back I take, I gotta
take ten steps forward in a sense… Especially with a guy like
Salvador, do I deserve to fight a guy who’s in the top 15 after
knocking him out? You know, a guy coming up from 125 [pounds], 0-2
in the UFC. Like do I deserve to fight a guy that’s right in the
top 15? I don’t think that really kind of gives me a spot to even
fight a guy that’s in the top 15. Of course, I went out there and
did what I’m supposed to do to him—this is me objectively looking
at it.”
Yanez continued, “I think like a win over Victor
Henry, or those guys, one of the Basharat brothers, Aiemann
Zahabi. I think all those guys, getting a win over them, if it
was them that I beat, like I smashed or knocked out, yeah, of
course, I’d be asking for a guy in the top 15.”