Controversial UFC bantamweight Tony Kelley is demanding a rematch against Adrian Yanez despite being brutally knocked out by him in the first round.
Yanez and Kelley engaged in a fierce back and forth before their bantamweight fight at UFC Austin last weekend. Much to the delight of the Texas crowd, Yanez knocked out Kelley with a flurry of punches before flipping him off in his post-fight celebrations.
Despite the one-sided nature of the loss, Kelley thinks Yanez is purposely avoiding a rematch with him. Replying to a user's comment on Instagram, he wrote: "[Yanez] don't wanna see me again and he knows it". Yanez laughed off the comment, to which Kelley replied: "You won't rematch me that's how I know..."
Kelley came under fire last month for comments he made whilst in the corner of UFC spouse Andrea Lee during her fight against Brazilian Viviane Araujo. During the break between the second and third round, Kelley told Lee: “That’s what they’re going to do, they’re dirty f****ng Brazilians, they’re going to f****ng cheat like that.
The bantamweight fighter, who is nicknamed 'The Klansman', later released a statement on his comments insisting there were no "racist connotations" intended and that he was a victim of cancel culture.
Kelley has fired back at Instagram users who mocked him for his rematch demands, writing to one user: "You're an imbecile, defensive is the wrong word to use. All you clowns talk about how 'irrelevant' I am while you come to my page and expect me to call you out on the bs, f*** outta here dummy."
Replying to another user, Kelley added fuel to the fire of ongoing racism accusations pinned against him by writing: "You Latinos like eating dirt and s***? I'm no savage have some self respect."
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Yanez admitted that he received a whirl of support from Brazilian fans ahead of his fight with Kelley. He said that Kelley's corner comments didn't change his motivation for the fight, but admitted it was nice to see his fanbase grow.
“I didn’t actually post for a couple of weeks, and the same week the fight was made, Andrea was fighting that Saturday,” Yanez told MMA Fighting. “From there, my stuff started blowing up with a whole bunch of Brazilian flags.
"A bunch of DM’s from Brazilian fans showing their support for me. It’s cool that a lot more people want to watch me do what I already wanted to do to the guy, and that’s knock him out."
