Adrian Yanez Felt Concern for Vinicius Salvador Following Brutal TKO Victory

Adrian Yanez was genuinely concerned for Vinicius Salvador after securing a technical knockout victory over the Brazilian at UFC Fight Night 241.

Yanez sat Salvador down with a massive right hand midway through the opening round and followed it up with vicious ground-and-pound to secure the finish. The amount of strikes that referee Chris Tognoni allowed Salvador to absorb before stepping in became a topic of debate among observers after the fight.

While some commended Tognoni for giving “Fenomeno” a chance to recover, others believed the referee could have stopped some of the devastating shots from Yanez by stepping in a little earlier. Yanez also admits that Salvador was making enough defensive moments initially for Tognoni to let the fight go on.

“Honestly, I don’t know. Because he was moving, he was doing all the right things,” Yanez said during the post-fight press conference. “I think when he pulled my base down from my hip, he did cause a disruption in me punching. But I was landing solid shots, and I was hearing Chris Tognoni and waiting for him to be like, ‘Fight back.’ And then five seconds later, whenever he yelled ‘Fight back.’ I was like, ‘All right cool, I just gotta continue punching.’”

The brutal ground-and-pound left Salvador on the canvas for several minutes after the fight was stopped. Yanez revealed that he was initially worried about his opponent’s health. However, the 30-year-old has since seen Salvador and his opponent seemed to be doing fine.

“And I was like, ‘Oh s—t!. Once the fight was stopped he was good, because he was still kind of moving but then whenever I walked off, I saw him still on the ground,” Yanez said. “I was like, ‘Oh s-t.’ It kind of settled in, I was looking and I was like, ‘Oh, damn.’ He was still down and honestly all the thoughts in my head were just like, ‘Oh s—t, I thought I killed a guy.’ And I started feeling really really bad, and I had to sit down and had to sit back and make sure he was good. But yeah, thankfully I saw him, he’s good, he’s all right. But yeah, I feel like it could have been stopped a little bit earlier.”