Adrian Yanez happy Sean O’Malley never came to fruition last year, expects to face ‘Suga’ for the belt: “We are two strikers, we are not going to shoot in for the takedown”

Adrian Yanez and Sean O’Malley both agreed to fight one another last year, but the bout never came to fruition.

Yanez had called out O’Malley after his win, and ‘Suga’ had said Yanez would be next, but the scrap never happened. Instead, O’Malley had a No-Contest against Pedro Munhoz and then defeated Petr Yan by split decision, which surprised many but not Yanez as he thought O’Malley was capable of winning that fight.

“I think I put something up on YouTube, going and watching that fight, O’Malley definitely has the skills,” Yanez said to BJPENN.com about O’Malley’s win over Yanez. “My question was always how fragile or how durable can he be… I was really surprised he was durable and was able to take the shots and keep on going. That is the only thing I was surprised by, but other than that, I knew he had the skills to compete with Yan and has the skills to compete with a lot of these guys in the bantamweight division.”

Yanez says he won’t shoot for a takedown against O’Malley

With Sean O’Malley defeating Petr Yan, it sets him up to fight for the belt next. Adrian Yanez, meanwhile, is set to face Rob Font, and should he win, he thinks it could set up a fight against O’Malley either for the belt or a number one contender scrap. With that, the Texan says he is glad the O’Malley fight never happened last year as it is now a much bigger fight.

“It’s kind of like everything happens for a reason. For me, on my end, I’m really glad it happened this way. I go out there and starch Rob Font and make it look so effortlessly that it just makes that fight so much bigger,” Yanez said. “I have to do everything on my part just like he has to do everything on his part. Even if he loses to Cejudo or Aljamain, I don’t think that drops his stock, it still makes the fight between me and him even bigger. We are two strikers, we are not going to shoot in for the takedown, he might but I’m not. I like knocking people out too much. I think it makes it a much bigger fighter, especially if he gets the title, I knock out Rob and there is a scenario where there is history and they give me the shot.”

Who do you think would win, Adrian Yanez or Sean O’Malley?