Yanez credits coach Sayif Saud for saving him and sealing first-round KO of Garbrandt at UFC 329

Adrian Yanez stopped former UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt with a first-round knockout at UFC 329 in Las Vegas, ending a two-year winless run and crediting coach Sayif Saud with both keeping him safe and calling the decisive combination.

Garbrandt came out aggressively in the opening exchanges, and Yanez admitted his instinct was to stand and trade — a decision he quickly recognised as the wrong one. It was Saud’s voice cutting through the arena noise that pulled him back to the game plan.

“Honestly, for me, it’s the coaching… Since I started working with coach Sayif, hearing his voice, it’s so distinct, you can hear it through any crowd,” Yanez said in his post-fight interview. “So as soon as I heard, ‘Move, get out of there, don’t. Stop.’ I was like, ‘Yes, you’re right, coach. I’m being an idiot right now.’… He hit me with that first flurry and I was like, ‘I’m gonna bite down and fight.’ Then I was like, ‘Wait, this is exactly what he wants.’”

Yanez went on to describe the moment the fight turned. After resetting and following Saud’s instructions, he waited for the call before committing to the finishing sequence. “Right as I skidded out, coach Sayif told me to get back on the plan. And as soon as coach Sayif called for it, I went for it, I landed it, and I got the knockout.”

The stoppage came less than three minutes into the first round of their bantamweight matchup, with Yanez landing a crisp combination to put Garbrandt down.

The victory improved Yanez’s record to 18-6 and snapped a difficult stretch that included a 15-month layoff followed by a majority draw against Ricky Simon in March. For Garbrandt, now 15-8, the loss means he has dropped three of his last four fights, a stark fall for a fighter who once held the 135-pound title.

With the win, Yanez made clear his attention has turned to climbing the bantamweight rankings — a division he now re-enters with renewed momentum and, by his own account, a sharper sense of when to trust his corner.