"People were being super, super racist" - Adrian Yanez revisits Aljamain Sterling's title defense amid social media hatred

Sportskeeda MMA's James Lynch recently caught up with Adrian Yanez ahead of UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs. Emmett. The duo spoke about everything from his upcoming fight against Tony Kelly and the controversy that Kelley stirred up, to online hatred towards fellow teammate Aljamain Sterling.

Standing at 5 ft 7 and 135 lbs, Adrian Yanez has been a bantamweight fighter with the UFC since 2020. With a professional record of 15 wins and 3 losses, Yanez has become a fan favorite with his fighting style and affable personality. He last faced and beat Davey Grant at UFC Fight Night: Vieira vs. Tate, and is slated to go up against Tony Kelley at UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs. Emmett on June 18th in Austin, Texas.

Read the limited transcription and view the timestamps of the interview below.

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Check out the interview right here:

Introduction: It is always great to catch up with my next guest.

Adrian Yanez has got a big fight coming up against Tony Kelley [at the] UFC Fight Night [on] June 18th in Austin, Texas.

Adrian, how are you doing man?

A: Man, I'm doing great, living, loving life man. I'm loving it, and I'm blessed man, i'm absolutely blessed.

Q: That’s awesome, we’re going to start with the fact that you’re in this new studio so to speak.

You’re doing the streaming, how did that all come together? When did you start doing that?

A: Man, I’ve been thinking about streaming for a long time, because I’ve always been into gaming.

Like, just kind of growing up, I’ve been playing games.

Just one day I had a couple of my co-workers, they started streaming [and] they started doing it, and like they had [a] general love for it.

And they kind of actually pushed me into it like, “No, you can do it, you can do it."

So actually, if it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t have started anything. They actually help me set up like, get everything.

This, this wall, no honestly I’m trying to get like you, everything and all the fight posters on the wall in the back.

Right now everything behind me is an absolute mess, so I had to have this little curtain behind me so no one sees everything.

Q: Well I’m sure it got a lot bigger after the Andrea Lee’s fight a few weeks ago.

Obviously, her boyfriend, Tony Kelley, [was] making some you know, disparaging remarks. And, I know right away everyone was tweeting about it.

And they’re like “if we didn’t want Adrian to win now, we want him to win even more.”

Just tell me first, what’s the feedback been like since that fight?

Because I saw like, you know everyone’s already rooting for you anyways, you’re such a fan favorite, but even more so now with what happened.

How’s the response been?

A: Man I’ve got like a bunch of Brazilian fans, and like my last post, I haven’t posted since, but I still get comments of Brazilian flags, still calming me down.

So it’s like, man you know, his downfall kind of elevated me a little bit. So, you know, it’s cool in a sense, but at the same time it’s kind of shitty what he said, you know?

He could have directed it towards the fighter and not just towards the whole country. And I feel like that’s kind of, that was kind of sh**y of him, but at the same time you know, I get to go in there [and] put him out.

Put him to sleep, you know? And then gain a bunch of more Brazilian fans, so I’m cool with that. Because I do love Brazil, I do want to go visit [Brazil] one day, [and] hopefully get to fight there one day.

Q: There you go, so you know, his mistake is your sort of game there.

Did you happen to catch his sort of response to everything, you know, talking about cancel culture, did you see what he wrote?

A: Yeah, and you know what? Like, his response was kind of just like, 'I don’t know.' I honestly was just like, 'Bro, all you had to do is just apologize.'

Like that’s all you really had to do, like you didn’t have to go out there and [be] like, 'oh, cancel culture.' Like, bro, honestly, us fighters, we’re not big enough to be canceled, so it’s like, it’s not really cancel culture.

It’s just you [that] you offended a whole bunch of people from Brazil, and now you’re getting the backlash from it. It’s not cancel culture, there’s a lot of people that just didn’t like what you said, responding to you.

And then also you happen to be a fighter, and I’m the fighter that’s fighting you, so yeah of course I’m going to get the bigger... Everyone’s going to want me to knock him out and you know, it just happens to be what it is, you know? You just talked s**t about a whole country so.

His response could have just been, 'Hey man, in the heat of the moment I just wasn’t even thinking straight, I’m sorry, I’m completely sorry.' But except he just kind of just put the blame, so [instead] of being like, 'Hey, you know, I apologize', [he] just went, 'No, f**k you, it’s cancel culture.'

So to me, he kind of messed up by not even like just admitting he was wrong. And what he said, he could have been like, 'Man, I meant it towards like, not to call her a dirty Brazilian or anything like that.'

And could have just been like, 'She’s a dirty fighter,' or whatever, you know? But he went on [to] talk mess [to] the whole country. That’s, honestly, [if you] talk mess about a whole country, they’re going to get you.

Like if Petr Yan were to talk mess about the United States, you know, every United States guy is going to be talking mess about Petr Yan.

It’s just what comes with the game.

Q: And then you know, the other thing too, I don’t know if you caught, [you] brought up a great point about how fans are fickle.

Did you see that, I think Jeff Molina posted the two DMs he got, the one was like, “Jeff I’m a huge fan of yours and all this, and you did really well.”

And then the next one is like, “you suck” and like it’s just crazy man. This is my thing with social media especially.

I find [that] there’s a lot of young kids unfortunately who’ve grown up in an era where they can just, they feel like they can say whatever they want.

And I don’t know, I’m a bit more old school, a little bit older than you and a lot of the fans that are saying this stuff.

But it’s like, I just never would think to do that, just because I just don’t think I’d gain anything out of it.

I don’t know, it’s weird, have you kind of noticed that too? That people are just very loose about what they say online.

A: Oh absolutely man, absolutely.

They get really crazy, they get absolutely just nuts and it just kind of turns into one of those things like.

Because, I used to be very like, on social media, just like trying to respond to everybody, respond to the fans and all that stuff. And I’m not going to even lie to myself, I did pull myself back from being on social media a lot.

Just because, man, like you’re going to see a couple of the [comments] ones that slip up, like I would see nothing but positive. But there are a lot of ones that slip up and like, man, some guy that was like, following me and I’d follow him back.

It was like one of those like, 'Hey, follow me', [and I’d think] like, 'Sure yeah, I’ll [follow you].'

You know, at the time whenever I followed him it was like, “Oh man, he’s not just like. Oh this is so amazing, and I got his follow.” Next like [thing] you know, months later he’s talking shit about me, and I’m like, 'Brother, really?'

Also too, I’ve kind of been off social media since that time I got hacked and people [have] just been like, 'Yeah, that one time I got hacked.' Alright cool, well, a lot of times I see these messages, a lot of people thought it was me that did that.

And I’m like, 'Oh yeah? Well, f**k oh s**t”, so I kind of pulled myself back just anyways.

Q: Let’s talk about Tony Kelley, the actual fight itself, he’s got an 8-2 record, what do you know about him?

How do you feel like you can match up against him here?

A: I feel like I match up very well against him, and he’s going to be the guy that’s not going to stop coming forward.

And I particularly love that, because it gets me to show what I’m really good at, my skill set and everything. He’s going to cause a lot of problems, and I love being the problem solver. So to me, I’m super excited for this match up man.

He’s going to come forward, and it’s just going to present itself to be a great fight anyways. Yeah, like, even with or without the controversy.

This fight is going to be a fan-friendly style matchup because I’m going in there [and] I’m trying to knock his head into the third row and all that stuff.

So of course, like, head to the bleachers, do what I can, put them out, and I feel like with his type of style there’s going to be a lot of opportunities that present itself.

Q: Let’s start first with Sterling, and first off I just imagine the confidence level just skyrockets when you see he is the bantamweight champion.

You got to train with this guy.

I remember a couple of months ago we talked about this in an interview where someone was giving, I forget who it was on Twitter, was giving you a hard time.

About, “Oh you’re training with Aljo”, but he says he [Sterling] can’t fight and all this.

And then to see him win the title and defeat Yan when everyone was counting him out. How satisfying was that for you?

You know, being a part of that camp and just, you know, getting to see a friend of yours win a UFC title?

A: Man, it was really, really cool man. Like, going out there twice, like, it was really amazing.

And to a point where, like, I know, it was like a lot of people were saying like, again going back to social media, everybody talks all that s**t.

But man, just to like see the amount of hate that guy had got, like people were calling him clown, people were being super, super racist, man.

I was tagged in one of his posts and like, just off the offset me looking through his comments like, 'Man, you know what? I want to see how bad [it] gets.'

Like, man, people were getting super racist, so like to see him come out on top, just with all the adversity, all the people.

Just like even just calling him like a, [JL: you don’t have to say it, I get it] bro like. Oh, it was disturbing, like, it was really, really disturbing to see.

And just to see him pull that off, to me, was just like, wow like I’m so happy that he got out there and he did it. And he won the fight, and like, just to see him and just to see all the hard work that he put in.

Because that whole entire time, that whole first week and like whenever I went back, that second week I did every training session.

Like I mirrored him, I didn’t skip a day, I just told him like, 'Hey bro, whatever you’re doing, I’m doing.'

You know, so I pretty much followed him throughout the whole week and pretty much like I was training on the champ’s time.

So I got in some great work with Ray Longo and also with the Serra BJJ black belts, you know? [A] lot of beasts over there. So, I felt super cool to be even just a part of it.

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Timestamps:

Q1: That’s awesome, we’re going to start with the fact that you’re in this new studio so to speak.

You’re doing the streaming, how did that all come together? When did you start doing that? (0:20)

Q2: It’s still a veteran move doing that man, I appreciate it. We can talk after if you’ve got any questions about [that] setup.

But I think it looks good man, and it’s cool to see you, you know, using the platform you have to do something really positive.

And something that you know could potentially make you some money down the line.

Look at Megan Anderson, she’s like an official partner, and I know she’s been killing it over there with her twitch stuff right? (1:10)

Q3: Well I’m sure it got a lot bigger after the Andrea Lee’s fight a few weeks ago.

Obviously, her boyfriend, Tony Kelley [was] making some you know, disparaging remarks. And I know right away everyone was tweeting about it.

And they’re like, “If we didn’t want Adrian to win, now we want him to win even more.”

Just tell me first, what’s the feedback been like since that fight?

Because I saw like, you know everyone’s already rooting for you anyways, you’re such a fan favorite, but even more so now with what happened.

How’s the response been? (2:10)

Q4: There you go, so you know, his mistake is your sort of game there.

Did you happen to catch his sort of response to everything you know, talking about cancel culture, did you see what he wrote? (3:15)

Q5: And then also with this you know, I mentioned you [‘ve] got all these new fans. Is there more pressure?

Or do you take that new fan base and the new followers, do you take that as more motivation to perform even better?

Because I would imagine there is a bit of pressure, now [that] it’s like, “Okay well, all this has happened.”

Everyone’s rooting for you, you [‘ve] got to do your end of the bargain. How do you sort of take that in? (5:02)

Q6: And then you know, the other thing too, I don’t know if you caught, [you] brought up a great point about how fans are fickle.

Did you see that, I think Jeff Molina posted the two DMs he got, the one was like “Jeff, I’m a huge fan of yours and all this, and you did really well.”

And then the next one is like, “you s*ck” and like it’s just crazy man. This is my thing with social media especially.

I find [that] there’s a lot of young kids unfortunately who’ve grown up in an era where they can just, they feel like they can say whatever they want.

And I don’t know, I’m a bit more old school, a little bit older than you and a lot of the fans that are saying this stuff.

But it’s like, I just never would think to do that, just because I just don’t think I’d gain anything out of it.

I don’t know, it’s weird, have you kind of noticed that too? That people are just very loose about what they say online? (6:35)

Q7: Let’s talk about Tony Kelley, the actual fight itself, he’s got an 8-2 record, what do you know about him?

How do you feel like you can match up against him here? (8:27)

Q8: Let’s start first with Sterling, and first off, I just imagine the confidence level just skyrockets when you see this is the bantamweight champion.

You got to train with this guy.

I remember a couple of months ago we talked about this in an interview where someone was giving, I forget who it was on Twitter, was giving you a hard time.

About, “Oh you’re training with the Aljo”, but he says he [Sterling] can’t fight and all this.

And then to see him win the title and defeat Yan when everyone was counting him out. How satisfying was that for you?

You know, being a part of that camp and just, you know, getting to see a friend of yours win a UFC title? (10:40)

Q9: Its good man, and kick into this fight, which is great.

On that same note, who’s going to be in your corner for this fight? Who’ll you have? (12:45)

Q10: Cool, how’s this fight playing out on June 18th? How do you see it going down?

I know you don’t like getting paid by the hour. (13:30)

Q11: Like I said, on paper it’s a great fight, [it] definitely has [the] fight of the night written all over it.

I guess the only downside is like, Kelley is not a ranked guy.

So, I would almost think in some ways he has a lot more to gain from a win than you do if you get a win over him.

I know you don’t really care about that stuff ‘a fight’s a fight’, it doesn’t matter but where would a win put you? (13:52)

Q12: Remind me again, how many more fights [do] you have left in your contract? (15:36)

Q13: Makes sense, that’s awesome.

You talked about playing video games, I was curious what was your favorite video game [while] growing up?

Was there one that you really enjoyed? (16:00)

Q14: On the N64 [Nintendo 64], yeah you’re speaking my language.

And then they remade it for basically WWF [because] at the time [it] was WrestleMania 2000, remember that, similar game? (16:58)

Q15: Yeah it was, I agree.

Adrian, thanks so much for doing this man, we’re really looking forward to this fight, UFC Austin June 18th.

If there’s anyone you want to thank, any sponsors, any social media, I’ll give you the last word. (17:17)