Adrian Yanez Is Living A 'Surreal' Life

The experience reminded Yanez of the times he would attend the fan events whenever the UFC came to Houston. He recalled testing his punching power on a bag with Pat Barry and admiring the glove size of Demetrious Johnson compared with Brock Lesnar. Fast-forward to present day, and it was now Yanez with whom fans were eager to chat and take pictures.

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“That was a surreal experience for me,” Yanez said. “It was bringing me back and everything. So that, to me, was nuts. Every single time I would take a picture with a fan, I would kind of relive my moment a couple years ago, so that was pretty fun for me.”

Although Yanez has featured on UFC’s loaded bantamweight roster after appearing on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2020 - fighting and winning five times since – he still operates with a sort of fan’s enthusiasm that endears him to fans. More than that, though, he fuels his rising star each time he steps into the Octagon and delivers action-packed fights and performance bonus-worthy knockouts (Yanez earned an extra $50k in each of his five fights). 

All that told, his moment in Austin represented a pair of UFC firsts: his first fight in front of a crowd, and his first fight in his home state of Texas. Considering the streak upon which he rode into the fight, Yanez would’ve earned a big pop from the crowd no matter what, but some additional attention was lauded onto his fight with Kelley in the buildup to June 18.

Yanez shouldered some extra pressure to put Kelley away because of crude remarks his opponent made while cornering a few weeks earlier, so a pocket of fans and peers were looking to Yanez to dole out some punishment. That, in tandem with fighting in Texas, put a surplus of high expectations on the Houston native to deliver in style against his toughest opponent to date. However, Kelley leaned in and played the part of the heel throughout the week, providing even more reason for people to back Yanez.

“Tony Kelley made it super easy for everybody just to cheer on my side,” Yanez said. “So, I didn't have a bad experience, but there was a bit of pressure. At the same time, it's so easy for me to compartmentalize and drown everything else out and just stay super focused. Even in the middle of a fight, when Tony Kelley started talking trash, I’m in there cool, calm and collected just gunning for him.”

Even though Yanez showed great composure under the lights, he admits he felt “fuzzy” in the morning. Whether that manifested from the prefight anticipation and anxiety or it just being one of those days, he pulled it together when he walked out and heard the crowd respond to his name getting called. 

As the fight proceeded, Yanez methodically worked his way inside of Kelley’s lanky frame and countered the Louisiana native’s kicks with heavy left hooks early. Yanez displayed his usual slick, textbook boxing and moved his targets down to Kelley’s body. Eventually, Yanez found a home for his right hand, then another, then another. He found space as Kelley tried to grab hold of him and cracked Kelley with a left hook that sent him stumbling to the canvas. 

The win in Austin also put a stamp on a year-long stretch that presented Yanez with a roller coaster of life experiences. 

In July 2021 as he prepared to fight Randy Costa, Yanez’s longtime coach Saul Soliz called to let his pupil know he tested positive for COVID-19. A couple days later, Yanez hosted a gender reveal and learned he would soon have a son. Yanez picked up another knockout win and performance bonus in a hard-fought effort. However, on August 17, Soliz died at the age of 55, a death that was felt across the MMA world. 

The following months would present Yanez with a variety of emotions – the grief of losing his mentor, the odd work of stepping into Soliz’s coaching role, the stress and excitement of imminent fatherhood, and somewhere in the midst of all that, finding the capacity to train for his toughest test yet: Davey Grant.

Through all that, Yanez came away from the November bout with a split decision win and his first Fight of the Night bonus, and all of the emotion came to a head in the Octagon after the scorecards were read. Later in the year, Yanez welcomed his son to the world, and he entered 2022 as not just a well-regarded prospect, but a father as well.