Adrian Yanez talks about his upcoming fight with Davey Grant, training, and more
Adrian Yanez is coming off an impressive comeback win over Randy Costa at UFC Vegas 32. That win was the seventh in a row for Yanez and he shows no sign of slowing down. Yanez already has his next matchup set, he will be taking on Davey Grant at the UFC Fight Night being held on Nov. 20. Before he steps into the cage, Yanez was kind enough to sit down f0r a chat about this upcoming bout, his training camp, and more.
At the time of the interview, Yanez was in Houston doing his training, but he was recently in NY to train with bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling. He spoke about what a benefit it was to get that opportunity.
“It was just great being around so many high-level people who have a similar mindset as you do,” Yanez explained. “To reach the pinnacle, like Aljo is at the pinnacle of the bantamweight division, you want to surround yourself with something like that. You are so close to it that you can see like, ‘Man, I’m not that far off.’ There was a lot of eye openings and there was a lot of like, ‘yes, I can do this’. I was just super excited to be around the environment of Ray Longo and the Law MMA guys and also Serra BJJ and it was a great environment and I loved it.”
Yanez is on a winning streak and is proving with each outing that he is just getting better. His next bout will be against Davey Grant, Yanez is looking forward to this fight because of the kind of fighter Grant is.
“I had called for the fight a while back ago because Twitter wanted that fight,” Yanez said. “Twitter wound up making the Randy Costa fight instead. I remember getting a call from my manager and he was like, ‘what do you think about Davey Grant,’ and I was like, ‘Davey Grant is perfect.’ It will top off my year because he is a veteran and he is a hardnose guy who fights to the very end and he doesn’t care he is going to sling hard fists at your face and try to knock you out with every one.”
At 27 years old, Yanez is one of the brightest young stars in the bantamweight division. He has racked up three huge wins since debuting on the Dana White Contender Series, all of which came with a performance bonus. Yanez is planning to take some time away after his next bout to get some personal matters in line but has a goal for his career going forward.
“In a year or two span, I do want to be in the top 15,” Yanez said. “I believe I can hit the top 15 in the next year. I just need to make sure that I’m good first before that. Once I hit that top 15 there is no going back, I have to fight nothing but killers every single time. They when you get to the top five, it’s the top five, you are right there for the belt. So I just have to make sure I am on my P’s and Q’s, everything I need to do, I need to do it to 100 percent.”
The fight card on Nov. 20 is set to be headlined by a bantamweight bout between Ketlen Vieira and Miesha Tate. The event will take place at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, NV.
