Having learned from two straight
Ultimate Fighting Championship losses, Adrian
Yanez believes he will walk away with a resounding win this
weekend.
Yanez (16-5) kicked off his UFC journey with five consecutive wins,
including four finishes, before suffering a first-round knockout
loss to perennial contender Rob Font at
UFC 287. Yanez went on to drop his next outing to Jonathan
Martinez, succumbing to leg kicks at the midpoint of the second
round. A torn meniscus following that bout sidelined him to his
upcoming May appearance.
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Looking back on his first career slump, Yanez revealed that the
Font loss was still on his mind going into his clash against
Martinez. While he initially thought he could get past that defeat,
the first few leg kicks from Martinez sent him spiraling.
“Honestly, I had changed up my whole stance, almost like my whole
style for that fight and I had to stay what’s true to me,” Yanez
said during the UFC Fight Night 241 media
day. “And again, I don’t know, best way to explain is like, my
mind wasn’t really in the fight.”
The Metro Fight Club export continued, “I was still kind of
thinking about the Miami fight, the Font fight. So, it was kind of
a little bit of a struggle going in…Whatever loss I have had
before, I’ve never really thought about my last previous fight
before a fight, like [while] walking out. And I was like, ‘Oh
f***.’ So, for me, it kind of stayed there. But in that moment, I
thought I [would] be able to get over but not at that moment…As
soon as the first kick that landed, I was like, ‘What the f***!’
And then after the second one, I was like, ‘Oh sh*t, something’s
wrong.’…After that, honestly it was just a downhill battle for
me.”
Yanez will look to return to the winning column against Vinicius
Salvador at
UFC Fight Night 241. Like Yanez, Salvador has lost two in a
row, albeit to unranked flyweight opposition rather than top-ranked
135ers. The Texan believes it should be an easy night at the office
if he sticks to his basics.
“I think it’s a fantastic matchup for me,” Yanez explained. “All I
gotta do is keep my base, stay technical, tactical, and just making
sure that I make it a beautiful disaster for him. And just make
sure that I hit him, make sure that whenever I hit him, that he
feels it. And again, I can’t get away from my base, cause I’ve
gotten away from it one too many times and I’ve worked on it this
whole camp, making sure that I got my base. Cause again, for me,
the way I look at this fight, as long as I stay tight and I stay
clean, this should be an easy dub.”