There was a time when, without question, Adrian Yanez was a bonus hound.
After he landed a UFC deal with a 39-second KO on DWCS in 2020, Yanez won his first five fights in the promotion – and picked up post-fight bonus awards in all of them. Four of them were knockouts to go along with a Fight of the Night split decision over Davey Grant, which stands as arguably the most prominent win in his career.
Lately, though, the road has been a lot bumpier. Yanez has dropped three of his past four fights against higher-tier bantamweights Rob Font, Jonathan Martinez and, most recently, Daniel Marcos. But the latter was 16 months ago, and ahead of his fight against Ricky Simon (22-7 MMA, 10-6 UFC) on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 271 (Paramount+), Yanez (17-6 MMA, 6-3 UFC) knows this is no time to get nostalgic about those extra checks.
A win would be his first in nearly two years, and just his second in nearly four years – so that tops the priority list at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.
“For me, it’s business as usual,” Yanez recently told MMA Junkie Radio. “I do want a three check night, but at the same time, I’ve got someone in front of me who’s going to be looking for the same thing. Sometimes you’ve just got to take a little bit of a smarter approach.”
Yanez said his 1-3 slide after such a hot start forced him to take a look at what he was doing heading into fights, and it meant making a move from his longtime base in Houston to Fortis MMA in Dallas.
There, with coach Sayif Saud and the team he’s put together, Yanez thinks the tide will turn for him. He was hoping the tide would have turned this past November, but Christian Quinonez pulled out of their fight and left him shelved for the past nearly five months.
“Change for me, even just with camp and everything, it’s more of a mental shift,” Yanez said. “I had to put myself in an uncomfortable position because I got way too comfortable, especially with my last couple of fights. Comfortability was my downfall. I got too comfortable in a lot of these positions and I got comfortable with not having too much say or anything like that. Going into Fortis and learning a little bit more and putting myself in a lot more uncomfortable situations helped me grow and expand. I wanted to continue to do that. That’s why I keep going back.
“… I’m more locked in than I’ve ever been. I’m locked in on Ricky. I can’t sit here and dwell on Christian and that fight. … I’m full steam ahead on Ricky. He’s a fantastic fighter. He brings it every single time.”
Yanez isn’t oblivious to the fact that the last time he fought, the bonuses were worth $50,000. In 2026, that number doubled to $100K. Out of action as long as he’s been, going back to those bonus hound days sounds mighty tempting.
But Yanez said he’ll do his best to not chase it.
“A lot of times, when you search for the knockout, you end up getting knocked out,” he said. “So I’m not searching for it. If it happens, it happens. And if I get that third check, I’d 100 percent love it. But even just the finish gets you $25K. All money is good money, especially if it’s a bank account. So if I go out there and knock them out and get $25(K) or I get upgraded to get $100K, that’d be 100 percent fine for me. I’ve already got five bonuses. I wish it was in the Paramount era instead of the ESPN era, but it is what it is.”
