[autotag]Yancy Medeiros[/autotag] is confident he has the perfect dance partner on Feb. 15.
Medeiros (15-6 MMA, 6-6 UFC) takes on [autotag]Lando Vannata[/autotag] at UFC on ESPN+ 25 in Rio Rancho, N.M., a matchup which pits two strikers who like to throw down.
“He’s going to bring that fight regardless,” Medeiros told MMA Junkie. “He’s not going to go over there and try to win by points. I ain’t either, that always brings out the best in me, and the worst in me but I’m working on that and we’re cleaning that up.”
In his last outing, Medeiros suffered a second-round TKO to Gregor Gillespie, who stifled him with his wrestling and pressure.
But in Vannata (10-4-2 MMA, 2-4-2 UFC), Medeiros will face an opponent who brings a mirror-image style: The duo have high finish rates and a combined nine post-fight bonuses.
“He’s an opportunist, when he sees it, he’s going to take it and I’m the same way,” Medeiros said. “We smell blood, we’re going in for it so I’m happy. Yeah, we have that similar trait, of fighting. We want to get in each other’s face and go toe to toe so he’s going to be groovy but I’m going to be smooth.”
Although he wasn’t able to make good against Gillespie in his return to lightweight, Medeiros has adopted a plant-based diet, that has allowed him to walk around 10-15 pounds lighter than usual.
Medeiros said the Diaz brothers, his frequent training partners and noted vegans, turned him on to his new diet.
“Nick and Nate are the ones who introduced me to eating healthy, a healthy lifestyle,” Medeiros said. “They’re real ninjas, we eat this, we eat plants, that’s what us as soldiers do, we do that. We go on 10-mile runs and 20-mile mountain bike rides. They introduced me to that. I went through a whole bootcamp when I first met them.
“Two months just stayed and there and wasn’t an (expletive). I came from Hawaii eating loco mocos, just all kinds of meat and everything, and then I went over there and they just enlightened me on just being healthy, and having an active lifestyle.”
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Plagued with injuries over the past couple of years, Medeiros hasn’t been as active as he would have liked, only competing twice in that span. He spent the time off nursing nagging injuries that he’s been dealing with for years.
“After my last fight, I wanted to address a lot of injuries that I worked around and I’m not making any excuses, I just felt like you know, I could take things a bit more slower and address this thing throughout the summer,” he said. “I went to the (UFC Performance Institute) for the first time – even prior to summer, spring I’m talking about, like I had a lot of hip injuries and all these other (expletive) that was going on with me just from wear and tear over the years and I realized I worked around a lot of injuries.”
Healed and rejuvenated, Medeiros hopes 2020 can be an active year, as he looks to display the best version of himself on Feb. 15.
“What I need to do, is make sure that I go in there, the best Yancy and just all the things I need to correct with me and my bad habits and the things that – all the fights that I lost, or I got beat up in, they took advantage of and I need to correct that.”
“I’m excited for myself more than anything because I really want this and I had a lot of me time going on these last two years. I fought twice in two years and I really have a lot to prove to myself.”
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