Rani Yahya Wants His Next Fight in His Hometown

Rani Yahya spoke with MMA Fighting about his win over Matthew Lopez at UFC Fight Night 91 and more. Some highlights are below:

On his win over Lopez: “He started strong, ready to really rip my head off. He has a lot of first-round finishes, so I had to be ready and counter with punches. My hand landed a few times. It was a nice fight that had a bit of everything. I punched, kicked, threw knees and elbows, some ground and pound. Submission attempts from both sides. The thing that made me happy is that I showed a great conditioning, too. I gassed in previous fights, but this time I was in great shape and was able to tap him in the third round. These wrestlers don’t like to play guard or anything like that. They come back up right away, and they are good at it. I really needed to fight like a real MMA fighter, not like a jiu-jitsu fighter, to win. I used a lot of elbows to hurt him and get close to the submission. I made a few mistakes, lost a few positions, but it was part of the process.”

On Lopez nearly tapping him: “I was fine. It was a dangerous situation, but the fact that he kept trying to submit me was good because he was willing to fight where I wanted. Not that it’s good to be in risky situations, he had the merits to get to those positions, but it was great because he was confident enough to grapple with me.”

On nearly getting a performance bonus: “Sean Shelby liked the fight, and even mentioned that I could win the ‘Fight of the Night’ bonus. But Tony Ferguson and that other guy gave me no chance [laughs].”

On his next fight: “I believe they will give me someone better ranked now. I told them I wanna fight in Brasilia, my hometown. It will be awesome to fight there. I’ve fought all over the world for a long time, and it’s not easy to take three flights, adapt to different time zones, different weathers, and stay away from home. I really want to fight in Brasilia now. I will fight whoever they want. I won’t say a name, because it might sound that I don’t want to fight someone else. I’ll fight anyone, but I won’t say names. Put me against a good challenge and I’ll be ready.”