On this day in 2022, UFC bantamweight Adrian Yanez answered prayers with a karmic knockout against a fighter who had rubbed many up the wrong way.
Mixed martial arts’ leading promotion staged a UFC Fight Night in Austin, Texas on June 18 three years ago. The event was topped by Josh Emmett’s win over Calvin Kattar in their five-round featherweight battle.
There were a number of other notable performances, from Roman Dolidze’s face-breaking knockout against Kyle Daukaus to Ricardo Ramos’ latest spinning back elbow finish.
But no performance came close to equaling the level of widespread praise achieved by Yanez with his triumph.
Adrian Yanez brutally knocked out controversial fighter Tony Kelley at UFC Austin
Yanez was tasked with opening the main card in his home state in a bad blood-fueled showdown against Tony Kelley.
Kelley was not a popular figure in the MMA community owing to his remarks while cornering his girlfriend Andrea Lee in her defeat against Viviane Araujo.
After claiming that Lee had been eye-poked, Kelley tried to encourage her by saying, “That’s what they’re going to do, they’re dirty f—— Brazilians, they’re going to f—— cheat like that.”
As if Yanez wasn’t motivated enough to make his opponent pay for those unsavory comments, Kelley also riled the 31-year-old up by referring to him as a “wish version” of Jorge Masvidal.
That led to a heated faceoff altercation between the pair at the ceremonial weigh-ins. While Yanez had to show restraint then, he was able to let his hands fly on fight night.
And he did so in devastating fashion, brutally destroying Kelley with strikes in the very first round. An awkward intervention attempt by referee Kerry Hatley even allowed the fan favorite to land some extra shots on his stricken foe.
Kelley was then released from the UFC and has not fought since.
UFC staff apparently rejoiced at Tony Kelley’s karmic knockout loss
If there was any doubt over whose side the majority of the fanbase was on, the immediate reactions to Yanez’s first-round knockout on social media cleared that up.
“And they (prayers) were answered.”
“The gods have answered.”
“Beautiful destruction.”
“The greatest example of ‘CHAT S— GET HIT’.”
“Everyone liked that.”
“So satisfying.”
And it seemingly wasn’t just the fans who were satisfied with the result.
During an interview with The AllStar, it was revealed that even members of the UFC staff had urged Yanez to KO Kelley, having also had bad experiences with Shreveport native.
“It’s an awesome moment for me,” Yanez said. “Man, that was a lot of emotion. That was a lot of raw emotion, of me just wanting to f— that guy up, man.
“I don’t like that guy. I genuinely don’t like that guy, man. Not even just because of the comments he said, but the stuff leading up, and I heard a lot of stuff about him. It’s a different thing whenever I’m going through the hallways and the UFC staff is telling me to f— him up.”
Yanez went on to claim that he’d been widely thanked for dispatching Kelley violently.
“That was the first guy I’ve had (people) be like, ‘F— that guy up. Beat the s— out of him.’ And there’s been so many thank yous after me whooping him that everybody’s like, ‘Thank you, man, f—.’ Those are the nicest people in the world, too, man, so it means a little bit more. It was a little bit more satisfying.”