Jonathan Martinez vs Adrian Yanez added to UFC Vegas 82
We’ve got an incredibly exciting bantamweight scrap to look forward to this fall, where no. 13 ranked Jonathan Martinez (18-4) and no. 14 ranked Adrian Yanez (16-4) will go to battle at UFC Vegas 82.
UFC Vegas 82 is to go down on October 14, 2023, live from the UFC Apex in Enterprise, Nevada.
Former XFL champ-champ (flyweight & bantamweight) Jonathan Martinez has been in the UFC for a few years now, beginning his promotional tenure in October of 2018. Debuting with a record of 9-1, the only defeat coming via disqualification to a current ranked flyweight in Matt Schnell, Martinez would lose his first octagon appearance to Andre Soukhamthath (UD).
Martinez would go 4-1 over his next five outings where he defeated Frankie Saenz (TKO) and Thomas Almeida (UD), the only defeat coming to Andre Ewell via split decision in a fight merely everyone aside from two judges scored for him.
Nonetheless, Martinez was KO’d by Davey Grant in his next outing before going on his current five-fight win streak. This showed Martinez defeat the likes of Cub Swanson (TKO) and Said Nurmagomedov (UD) over the course of his last two bouts.
Adrian Yanez on the other hand came to the UFC two years later in October of 2020, and he quickly tore through the division with five-straight wins where he defeated Victor Rodriguez (KO), Gustavo Lopez (KO), Randy Costa (TKO), Davey Grant (SD), and Tony Kelley (TKO), picking up performance bonuses in all five appearances.
This streak was however halted by no. 7 ranked Rob Font in his latest outing, Font TKO’ing Yanez in just three minutes. He’d never been finished before, and his latest two defeats prior both came via split decisions.
This is a dream fight of sorts with a lot of parallels going in:
Both of these talents are fun to watch strikers, both are of Mexican descent but native to the USA, both are 29 years of age, both had six wins as amateurs with Yanez going 6-0 and Martinez going 6-1, both have lost four times as professionals and both have been finished just once (both via knockout), both are 5-1 in their last six and 7-1 in their last eight, and they’re ranked just one spot apart from one another in the UFC’s most stacked division.
Who comes out of this bantamweight clash on top?
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