Ahead of his main card matchup at UFC 287 on Saturday, bantamweight contender Adrian Yanez answered questions regarding …
the first time I ever stepped into the Octagon the cage whatever people want to call it man I it was nerve-wracking for me I had so many emotions going through I was 17 years old I had no idea what I was getting myself into I just knew at that moment that like I had to go out there and fight it took so much for me to step in there I went through a training camp I didn’t know how a training camp is supposed to be like I had no idea what exactly how to expect honestly this calm came about me and it was just fun I had fun in there and all my problems outside the cage went away so to me that first the walking into the cage was the nervous I have ever been in my whole entire life and once that belt rang it just went away and I was it was it was a calm feeling the best feeling I had was winning that contract off the contender series but the even better feeling that I had was uh getting my getting my UC debut and coming off a spectacular like getting a head kick knockout I had never had a head kick knockout in my career all up until that moment and yeah it was uh it was it was so cool it was like I had a blast my coach ended up passing away so that put me in a different headspace I didn’t at that point in time I had no idea what I was what I was going to do and that whole training camp for for Davey Grant was just I had I was just running my own camp and you know that was a hard part in my career and my UFC career and it was it it took a lot of time for me just to even get my headspace right the person who got me there is not is not there physically with me anymore so that that that part sucks but uh you know you know it is what it is you know but at the same time as I continue to grow and continue to grow as a fighter as a coach as a man uh I think he’d be proud uh the the double middle fingers to me was like I wouldn’t say it was out of character because I I absolutely like that was raw emotions that was like purely me at that point in time because that guy definitely I didn’t want to show it but he definitely got under my skin uh leading up to the fight uh heard an interview where he was uh I’ve gotten the Jorge Mazda comparison before but the fact that he was going out and like saying like I’m a wish version he you know is like he was some a lot of people were saying it in Praise but he was saying it as in like nah he was talking mess so I was like I you know I felt away I just remember I can’t get out of I can’t let myself get out of character right now I can’t let myself let him get in my head and once I knocked him out everything just kind of poured off like yeah you do I everything came out like 100 like I won I wanted some extra shots but what I got in return was a pretty cool picture that I got you know the double middle fingers nft you know made made of it you know a fandom moment so I think this is pretty cool if uh you know go to UFC strike NFC strike man and go purchase you one right now I’m just saying uh it’s it’s definitely one of those where I feel like if we’ve all just strapped on boxing gloves and went out and just boxed I’d definitely come out on top against a lot of those guys man uh man I I don’t even care put me up against someone like Peter yon I doubt box him definitely a lot of these guys don’t know how to box they just know how to uh box for MMA you know so to me like yeah you strap on the boxing gloves but that’s the thing is that MMA boxing and regular boxing is completely different uh because in MMA you have to worry about worry about the kicks you have to worry about certain things you know so I feel like I translated over very well from like a box of sample into the MMA inside anime portion man I just can’t wait to show off my skills man I’ve been getting better I’ve been staying I’ve been staying consistent with my training and I’ve been learning I’ve been learning from the best uh Eve Edwards and also Michael Chase Corley and then also I go back to my go back to my home gym at Athletics and you know get this bar and train with my guys and all that stuff so I’ve been I’ve been doing a lot and I’ve been consistently trained I just can’t wait to go back in there and show off my skills because I’m working on everything uh not only just my boxing not only just my Muay Thai I’m working on my wrestling my Jiu Jitsu and man I I really can’t wait to show it off man I really can’t wait I can’t wait to go up there give another performance of the night type of type of fight because man I I got five but I want six I want that record