Athletes
Jonathan Martinez | The Way Of The Dragon
Bantamweight Rides Big Win Streak Into Las Vegas Saturday Where He Meets Adrian Yanez
It’s hard to tell if things are going according to plan for Jonathan Martinez, but with him in the bantamweight Top 15 and a shot at moving further up the ladder possible should he defeat Adrian Yanez this Saturday in Las Vegas, it looks like a good time to be the “Dragon.”
That’s the good news. The bad is that the more he keeps winning, the more attention the soft-spoken Texan will receive. But you know what, that’s even starting to grow on him.
“I'm getting a little bit more comfortable with it now,” he said. “I'm pretty much a veteran already; I’ve got 11 fights in the UFC.”
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More importantly, Martinez has won eight of those 11 fights, and after earning four straight victories over Zviad Lazishvili, Alejandro Perez, Vince Morales and Cub Swanson, it’s starting to get to the point where 2024 may very well be his year.
“I think it is,” Martinez said. “I've been working really hard for it, I train every day, I get different guys coming in and I got really good looks now, so I feel real comfortable going in there with these guys.”
That doesn’t mean he’s thinking too far ahead.
“Not yet,” he said. “I'm just worrying about Adrian right now because he's the one coming up. After that, I’ll focus on it.”
It’s a smart approach from a smart young man who is already planting the seeds for life after fighting by opening a gym – the MTZ Fight Club - back in Plainview. While he’s in Colorado with the Factory X squad preparing for fights, Martinez’ brother takes care of the gym and the students, which include two of his three kids.
UFC Vegas 5: Jonathan Martinez delivers a knee TKO to Saenz
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UFC Vegas 5: Jonathan Martinez delivers a knee TKO to Saenz
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“They started doing competitions too, so it's pretty cool,” Dad said of his boys, aged 14 and 12. Martinez also has a six-year-old girl, and he admits that he’s not the screaming from the corner type of father. He’s the complete opposite.
“I don't corner them,” he laughs. “I let my brother corner them. I'm nervous. I’ll watch from the side.”
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So far, it’s worked, with both youngsters showing potential to one day do exactly what they’ve always wanted to do.
“I don't try to force them, but they say they want to be like dad,” he said. “So I just let them do it.”
They’ve got a good role model, someone who shows up to the gym, works hard, goes to the fight, gives his best effort, picks up his check and heads back home. No trash talk, no antics, just a blue-collar fighter trying to provide for his family. He’s actually a mirror image of his opponent, Yanez, and it’s not surprising that once Martinez met his fellow Texan for the first time, he wasn’t too interested in fighting him.
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“We met at a fight and it was really cool,” said Martinez. “I remember I told one of my coaches, ‘I'll fight anyone except Adrian because he's cool.’ But his name came up. So I was like, ‘Oh s**t, I guess we got to fight now.’”
It’s not the first time this has happened to Martinez, with him pointing out having dinner with Vince Morales two months before he got the call to fight him in May of 2022. Martinez won that fight, and he plans on putting his feelings about Yanez aside this weekend because this is business, never personal.
“Fight night, that's a different thing,” he said. “Fight night, I’ve got to shut everything down and get to work. I have a family to feed.”
Is that the Way of the Dragon?
“Honestly, just stay focused and train hard, that's the main thing,” he said. “There are some days you don't want to go and those are the days you need to go and you're going to get better. I still go because I know, at the end of the day, it's going to pay off.”
UFC Fight Night: Yusuff vs Barboza took place live from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 14, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
