Adrian Yanez has made quite the impression since joining the UFC roster, but he’s just getting started.
Yanez (13-3 MMA, 2-0 UFC), who secured a UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series with a 39-second finish of Brady Huang this past August, has gone on to notch two more knockout wins.
He’s coming off his second straight “Performance of the Night” bonus when he took out Gustavo Lopez in the third round at UFC on ESPN 21 less than two weeks ago. With many already highly touting the streaking Yanez, he knows a fast rise is inevitable.
And while he welcomes it, it’s not necessarily the path he’d choose. He’s finally focusing on fighting full time after quitting his day job and is ready to go through the ringer in the stacked 135-pound division if he has to.
“I’ve been doing MMA as a part time for a great part of my career,” Yanez told MMA Junkie. “This is my first training camp of me actually doing MMA full time, so I know I still have a lot to learn. This is not even me at my full peak yet. I don’t feel like I’m anywhere close to peaking. So I want to give myself the time and the room to improve and just with the amount of improvement that I had in this last fight compared to the fights before, I can see the levels that I’ve gotten better. So for myself, I’d like to give myself a little bit of time to get the hang of things.
“But also at the same time, if they want to shoot me up there, I for a fact would love to do that. But if I’m being a little bit smarter, I want to be able to cover up some things here and there – find my way, give myself a little bit more experience in the UFC. Just like Max Holloway – he’s a good example. Dustin Poirier is a great example. Look how long it took for them to even get close to a title shot. It took them a long time, and I don’t mind taking that high road. I don’t mind working my ass off to get to that point. But also I don’t mind getting a shortcut either.”
Yanez has seen numerous fights fall through in the past couple of years, which has hampered his goal of being active. But he hopes to turn that around by competing multiple times in 2021.
“I want to fight a little bit more consistently because in the past, I’ve only fought maybe twice in one year,” Yanez said. “Last year, I only fought twice. And in reality, I want to be fighting four, maybe five times a year – so I don’t mind working. I don’t mind working my way up to the top.”
Adrian Yanez only just hitting his stride: ‘This is not even me at my full peak yet’
