A marquee bantamweight matchup took place at UFC Vegas 81 between two of the better prospects at 135 pounds. The 13th-ranked Jonathan Martinez came into the fight with an 18-4 record, while the 14th-ranked Adrian Yanez came in 16-4.
Adrian Yanez looked to bounce back strong following his first loss in the UFC to Rob Font in April. The Texas native had put together an impressive 9-fight win streak prior, with a 5-0 record in the UFC. With exciting fights and a fun style, the DWCS alum will look to get back on track against a streaking contender.
Jonathan Martinez is someone who’s improvement has been seen in every fight. Two fights ago, Martinez beat down veteran Cub Swanson en route to a 2nd round TKO due to leg kicks. He followed that up with a technical, well-rounded performance over the tough Said Nurmagomedov, claiming a unanimous decision win. A win in this fight would be 6 in a row for Martinez and become his 10th win in the promotion, and potentially his biggest.
Adrian Yanez vs. Jonathan Martinez
Martinez came out early and secured the center of the cage while the two exchanged some kicks to all three levels. Yanez continued to bounce side to side and look to land punches at different angles while Martinez tracked him across the cage. As Yanez started to find success with his punches, Martinez started to really hurt his legs with some hard kicks. The lateral movement of Yanez slowed but he continued bouncing in front of Martinez before eating another massive leg kick that backed him to the cage. Yanez started to rush in with punches but Martinez evaded well and dropped Yanez with another massive leg kick. Yanez got up and continued to land some clean punches before being dropped again with a leg kick. Martinez made Yanez get up and battered the leg some more, with Yanez barely making it out of the round.
With 13 kicks to the legs in round one, Yanez needed to change something in round 2 to keep Martinez off of him.
The 2nd round started with a quick pause in the action after a shot to the cup. However, the two picked up fast off the break and exchanged some hard punches with Martinez landing a big overhand on the break. Martinez continued to tactically break down Yanez with leg kicks and dropped him again in round 2 before clipping him with some massive punches. When Yanez got up, Martinez started to tee off, throwing whatever he wanted to a clearly injured Yanez. Yanez tried to move but when he did, he ate another hard leg kick before dropping again with Kerry Hatley stepping in to call the fight.
Martinez secures his top 15 ranking and likely earns a shot at a top 10 opponent next. The stoppage came at 2:26 of Round 2.
UFC Fighters React to Adrian Yanez Getting Shut Down
What did you think of Jonathan Martinez’s technical beatdown of Adrian Yanez? Who do you want to see him fight next? Let us know in the comments below.
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