Adrian Yanez scored a brutal knockdown just seconds before the final horn in his fight against Ricky Simon at UFC Seattle and he was confident that he would either get a stoppage win or earn a decision on the judges’ scorecards.
As it turns out, he got neither.
Despite the near finish and seemingly securing at least one of the other two rounds, Yanez was understandably shocked when the decision resulted in a majority draw.
“I do feel like I deserved it but also, I do understand the situation,” Yanez said when speaking to MMA Fighting. “I feel there was a little bit of a hometown bias. The ref was on his side, not old Yanez’s side and he kind of let him go [after that knockdown]. After that, a part of me, he was a veteran about it but I shouldn’t have hugged him immediately. I should have let it play out because he was wobbling all over the place.
“I got love for Ricky so I’m not too upset about it but I feel like I won the fight. I go back and I rewatched it, I can see some people making the argument but to me, I feel like I won.”
As much as it stings for the decision to take away a potential victory, Yanez truly believes the fight probably should have been stopped in those closing seconds after he dropped Simon and just started unloading punches in succession. Simon covered up to survive but he was just absorbing punishment until the horn sounded to end the fight a few seconds later.
While Yanez understands that all fighters want the chance to fight back in a moment like that, Simon wasn’t offering any resistance other than covering his head and waiting for time to run out.
“It kind of reminded me of mine versus Gustavo Lopez fight,” Yanez said. “I feel like that one could have kept going more than this one did. But it is what it is. I knew the risk going in. I knew everything was going to be stacked against him. I’m in his home state and as soon as we were walking out, you knew who was behind who but I thought the judges were going to be unbiased about it. I knew. It happens in Texas all the time. We get so many screwy hometown decisions. I knew what I was walking into.
“It sucks. But even then, that first drop where he hit the floor, I thought it was over. I was even debating maybe I should have just walked away but a part of me I was like I need to finish this fight in that moment. I feel like I made the right decision.”
Perhaps the toughest part for Yanez about the majority draw is leaving UFC Seattle with half his paycheck because he only earned his show money and did not get paid his win bonus. Because the fight wasn’t stopped, Yanez also missed out on the UFC’s new $25,000 finishing bonus and he obviously also wasn’t eligible to earn a $100,000 bonus for Performance of the Night.
What stings even more is Yanez was returning to action for the first time in over a year and every dollar counts in that situation.
“I was out for about a year and four months, it does suck that I don’t get my paychecks,” Yanez said. “I’m taking it in stride because I’ve never looked this good against this high quality of an opponent. I’m happy with the performance but it does still sting that I don’t get the payment. That’s all the judges.
“I definitely feel like I got robbed. It feels like they did a stickup. It’s an old-time robbery where they just had a bandana as a mask and a gun and they’re like ‘you don’t get it today.’ I’m like f*ck.”
Considering the result and the long layoff that precipitated his return at UFC Seattle, Yanez is hopeful that the UFC gets him booked again soon, especially since he walked away mostly unscathed from the Simon fight.
Yanez really wants to get the bad taste of that decision out of his mouth but that won’t fully go away until he gets back into the octagon to compete again.
“Sooner rather than later,” Yanez said about his next fight. “I feel good to go. I don’t know who to call out or who would be next but at the same time, I feel a little salty at the whole Christian Quinonez thing happening. He got booked to fight before I got booked to fight [after he dropped out of our fight] so I am a little annoyed by that. So I would like to fight him. Just because of that. I know it does nothing for me but out of annoyance for me.
“I saw somebody on Instagram do a post saying me and Cody Garbrandt should fight. I think that would be a fun one, too. I don’t care. I just want to get back in there and fight.”
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