Petr Yan has been watching the bantamweight division from the sidelines and shrugging.
The two-time champion returns against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 333 on October 24, 10 months after taking the title from him at UFC 323. Yan had back surgery in January and has not fought since.
Plenty happened while he was out. Song Yadong knocked out Umar Nurmagomedov, Mario Bautista climbed past Cory Sandhagen, and Sean O’Malley stopped the streaking Aiemann Zahabi. None of it moved him.
To be honest, I’ve been watching the division and nothing really impresses me because yeah, some people are winning, some people are losing, but let’s say Song and Umar, Song knocked out Umar, but I’ve beaten Song already.
He spoke through a Russian translator.
So there’s really not all that much that I’m impressed with. Same kind of people swirling around, so I’m happy to come out and fight everybody and beat everybody.
Yan is not picking his next one either.
The champ doesn’t choose his opponents. We have matchmaking here for a reason. I think whoever they’ll put there, I’ll be ready to fight them.
First comes the trilogy. Dvalishvili beat Yan in March 2023 to hand him a third straight loss, and Yan won three in a row to earn the rematch. Both fights went the distance. He wants this one to end early.
I think this time around, I want to prove myself and also everybody else that that wasn’t a fluke, that there was a reason for that. And hopefully this time it’s going to be a knockout.
