Southpaw Yanez who hails from Duncanville, Texas was a hyperactive kid who was taken to the gym by his father in 1997 at the age of 8 when he had trouble getting his son to listen and settle down.

In Brazil at the PanAm games 2007 he reached the final by beating two opponents who had beaten him earlier the same year – Cuba's Yampier Hernandez in the quarterfinals and Dominican Wilton Mendez in the semifinals and also bested Venezuelan Kevin Betancourt, ranked 58th in the world for the gold medal.

At the 2007 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Chicago he qualified for the Olympics for good but lost surprisingly to fellow southpaw and eventual silver medalist Harry Tanamor from the Philippines.

"[1] In a bout against Australia's Stephen Sutherland, the referee was forced to stop the fight in the second round after Yanez caused three standing eight counts.

With this win, Yanez earned his official place as a light flyweight (106 pounds) in the 2008 Olympics to be hosted in Beijing, China.

His first professional fight took place on Friday, February 20 versus Julio Cesar Valadez of San Antonio at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.