Adrian Yanez knows he’s on the cusp of reaching the next level in his career if he can finish Davey Grant.
Unbeaten in his UFC career so far, Yanez (14-3 MMA, 3-0 UFC) has finished all three of his octagon wins, most recently scoring a second-round TKO of fellow prospect Randy Costa in July.
He meets “The Ultimate Fighter 18” finalist Grant (14-5 MMA, 4-3 UFC) on Nov. 20, and if he’s able to notch another impressive finish, Yanez expects to start drawing some of the marquee names in the division.
“Davey Grant, he’s a veteran,” Yanez told MMA Junkie Radio. “He’s been in the game for a very, very long time, and then also somebody like ‘Chito’ (Vera) who’s had like – he’s had a lot of fights in the UFC, so he deserves that ranked fight like Frankie (Edgar), but the performances I’ve been putting on, and I’ve been stopping these guys in pretty good, traumatic fashion, it’s inevitable for me to only start getting these bigger, better names – top names anyway.
“Coming in, I stop Davey Grant, people are going to start looking at me a lot differently because Davey Grant has never been stopped. He’s only gone to decisions, so if I’m the first man to stop Davey Grant, that only makes the options for me so much bigger, and I’m pretty sure a lot of people are going to look at that and be like, ‘If he finishes Davey Grant, then how high is his ceiling?’ That only puts my ceiling super, super high, so I’m excited for this matchup, and if it brings me into the range where I’m able to fight a Frankie Edgar, Urijah Faber, Dominick Cruz, I would completely love that.”
A rising star in the UFC, 27-year-old Yanez is on a seven-fight winning streak. But Yanez isn’t too sure if some of the legends in the division would be willing to face him and hopes a finish of Grant gets their attention.
“My trajectory is high; I just need to go out there and starch Davey Grant and get another 50 Gs, so I think that’ll be great,” Yanez said. “I need that stoppage because at the end of the day, big names on my resume, that’s what I want.”
He continued, “I’m not on their radar yet. I’m not a big enough name where they can be like ‘Oh, yeah, we want to fight that Yanez kid.’ I try and keep myself grounded. I don’t try to overshoot where I’m at or anything like that, so if I go out there and stop Davey Grant, then yes, that puts 100 percent like, yeah, those guys should be looking at me, but will they fight me? I don’t think so.”
To see the full interview with Yanez, check out the video below.
