“Even though he called me out, I’m still gonna sing praises for him.”
Adrian Yanez may have found his next opponent.
There were several big winners at UFC 303 this past weekend (June 29. 2024). At bantamweight, the undefeated now 9-0 prospect Payton Talbott continued to impress when he cut through Yanis Ghemmouri in 19 seconds to score the knockout victory (watch highlights).
Talbott, 25, knew just who he wanted after the fight and vocalized it by calling for the 135-pound mainstay Yanez. Despite the challenge, Yanez wasn’t offended.
“Even though he called me out, I’m still gonna sing praises for him,” Yanez told MMA Mania on Sound & Pound. “I’m gonna give credit where credit is due.
“For me, I was really respecting the callout because I’m like, ‘ Hell yeah.’ You’re just bringing noise to the fight and that’s gonna put us at a higher level fight for us. Let’s do this.”
Timing kind of hurt the pair of talented strikers as the hype and talk of a possible matchup online was immediately overshadowed by the developing story around UFC 303’s co-main event.
Ultimately, it was impossible not to be impressed by the quick finish, and from Yanez’s seat, that was exactly what Talbott should have done.
“He did what he was supposed to do against that guy,” Yanez said. “They brought him in, he was brought in to make Talbott look really, really good. So, for me, he’s like again, if they put a can in front of you, you’re supposed to treat him like a can. If that guy would have lasted more than a round and Talbott struggled a little bit, I’d be looking at him like, ‘Ah, yeah, no you still have work.’ But he just went out there and, ‘Oh. Right hand’s there. Boom.’ Dropped him then finished him. That was a really good solid performance.”
Yanez, 30, started his UFC run on a hot five-fight winning streak after earning his contract through Dana White’s Contender Series in August 2020. Setbacks against Rob Font and Jonathan Martinez followed for Yanez before he returned to the win column against Vinicius Salvador with a first-round knockout this past May.
Should the Talbott bout get offered to Yanez at some point, he’ll gladly accept. Initially, the Dr. Pepper-loving knockout artist completely missed the sentiment from his fellow bantamweight.
“I was on the way to Circa Resort because that was where we were watching the fights,” Yanez said. “As we’re driving and that happens, he knocks him out, ‘Okay, cool.’ I went to go sit in my seat and the next thing you know, a Tesla pulls out like f*cking cuts off the bus and almost catches us in a wreck.
“I didn’t hear the callout immediately. Cameron Smotherman, my training partner, texted me with eyes emojis and I’m just sitting back like, ‘Oh, yeah.’ My immediate reaction I said to Cameron was, ‘That guy f*cks’ (laughs). Then I started getting tagged left and right on Twitter and all that stuff with people texting me, ‘Oh, did you hear you got called out?’ Then I texted Cameron and I was like, ‘Oh, never mind, he just called me out. He doesn’t do that’ (laughs).”
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