Adrian Yanez finds it hard to fully give Sean O’Malley credit for his recent performances.
O’Malley notched yet another finish when he took Raulian Paiva out in the first round at UFC 269 and now finds himself in the promotion’s bantamweight rankings.
Prior to his win over Paiva, O’Malley (15-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC) restated his interest in fighting Yanez (15-3 MMA, 4-0 UFC), who already accepted his previous callout. Yanez said he wasn’t too surprised to see O’Malley score an early finish of Paiva, considering that the Brazilian has competed at flyweight on numerous occasions.
“I went back and I saw it, and I was just like, ‘Oh well,’” Yanez told MMA Junkie Radio. “To me, I had already saw that happening. I forgot where I said Sean was gonna win by knockout first round, but I kind of knew that was going to happen. Paiva is like a smaller 125er coming up to ’35. Props to Paiva taking that jump, but I didn’t think he had any of the skills to beat Sean O’Malley so it was a great performance from Sean O’Malley’s part, but again, another 25er.”
O’Malley isn’t the only fighter calling out Yanez’s name. After finishing Randy Costa at UFC 269, Tony Kelley (8-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) challenged Yanez, vowing to hand him his first UFC loss.
“Yeah, I love that fight,” Yanez said. “He comes forward. He said he was a swamp boy from Louisiana, I’m from Houston, Texas where we swang and bang. I’ll tell you right now, he tries to come towards me like that, he’s going to be on the wrong side of the winner’s circle. He’s going to wake up looking at the refs being like, ‘What happened?’ It’s going to be me just walking around with my hands up. I like that fight a lot. I like all the fights that people have been calling me out because it gives me a fire.”
To see the full interview with Yanez, check out the video below.
Adrian Yanez: Sean O’Malley had a great performance at UFC 269 – but against another 125-pounder