Following an extremely tough 2023, UFC bantamweight contender Adrian Yanez believes he is in a ‘do or die’ situation, ahead of his May 18th fight against Vinicius Salvador.
Adrian Yanez, who sat inside the top 15 of the bantamweight rankings last year, suffered his first two UFC losses in what was an extremely tough year for the 30-year-old.
On May 18th, Yanez takes on Vinicius Salvador at the UFC Apex, in what will be Salvador’s first UFC fight at bantamweight.
Adrian Yanez still had Rob Font loss playing in his head before his last outing
In April last year, Yanez was matched up with highly ranked 135lber, Rob Font, as he looked to push towards the top 10 of the division. Unfortunately for the Texan, he suffered his first loss in the UFC, and his first loss by knockout.
Six months later he was matched up with Jonathan Martinez, who was riding a five-fight win streak. Yanez went on to suffer his second loss in a row, falling out of the bantamweight rankings.
Ahead of his May 18th fight against Salvador, Yanez spoke exclusively to Bloody Elbow, discussing the mental struggles he faced following his first two UFC losses.
“I’m in a do or die situation in my head right now so I don’t want to have to worry about anything” Yanez commented in regard to making his sixth appearance at the UFC APEX.
Yanez admitted that his loss to Martinez was harder to get over because of the way it happened, and because he had more time to take it in.
“That second (loss), the first kick landed, and boom, f***** my whole leg up immediately, felt a whole shock in my leg and felt warm liquid, it felt like my leg was bleeding. I had a lot more time to sit back and soak in (the loss) because I had to have surgery after that fight.
“It also gave me a change of perspective on a lot of things. In my 2023 I got way too comfortable. I was comfortable in the position I was at, I had a ranking next to my name and I was (too) comfortable. I started letting others control what I was doing in camp and I didn’t have full control.” Yanez admitted.
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The 30-year-old admitted that before he walked out for his fight against ‘The Dragon’ he still had his loss to Font playing in the back of his head.
“The Martinez fight I thought I was mentally good there, but walking out to the cage there was still remanence of that (Font) loss beforehand, when I was walking out it was still playing in the back of my head a bit.” Yanez opened up.
Training with Diego Lopes’ team reignited Yanez’s ‘love for the game’
In preparation for his upcoming fight, Yanez spent some time training with Alexa Grasso and UFC featherweight, Diego Lopes, at Lobo Gym.
Yanez admitted that training around ‘like-minded’ people reignited his love for MMA. “It got me excited, like man, whenever you’re around like-minded people like them that want to get better and always want to train, that put a fire beneath my ass and reignited my love for the game.”
Vinicius Salvador being his next opponent came as a surprise to Yanez who admitted he signed the contract without even knowing who he was fighting. Despite that, the 30-year-old is ‘excited’ about the stylistic matchup as he believes Salvador will leave openings for him to exploit.
“To me, it was kind of out of left field. If I’m looking at the position, he’s at the back of the bus. I’m taking two losses but I only took two losses to two of the best in the division.
“I was expecting someone close in the rankings but again, I kept telling them I don’t give a f*** who you put in front of me, I just want to fight. I didn’t know it was him they (UFC) were like ‘Hey you’ve got a fight’ so I said ‘Alright cool’ and went back to training.
“They started showing me who I was fighting and I was like ‘Oh okay’ because I’m not good with names. I’ve been doing all my due diligence because again, I’m not having another 2023, my 2024 is going to be a statement. I’m going to go out there and knock this motherf***** out.” Yanez explained.