Petr Yan already has an idea of who could be next.
The UFC bantamweight champion defends his title against Merab Dvalishvili in the UFC 333 co-main event Saturday in Abu Dhabi. Speaking to MMA Fighting through an interpreter, Yan said a rematch with Sean O’Malley makes sense.
Why not? For real, we have history, so why wouldn’t that be the fight?
O’Malley beat Yan by split decision in 2022. He is 2-0 since back-to-back title losses to Dvalishvili, beating Song Yadong and knocking out Aiemann Zahabi on the UFC White House card in June.
Yan said he isn’t necessarily impressed by those wins, but he likes where O’Malley is heading.
It’s just that he’s obviously winning. He’s doing a great job. He’s moving forward, and he’s definitely proved that he is the next one, or one of the next ones who should be good to fight for the title, but it’s not that I’m watching it, and I’m impressed by it, just he’s on the right trajectory.
Whoever the UFC puts in front of me, that is who I’m going to fight. Whoever they think is the next opponent, I don’t choose my opponent.
Yan won the title back from Dvalishvili by decision at UFC 323 in December 2025, avenging a 2023 loss. He expects Dvalishvili to wrestle from start to finish this time.
100 percent he’s gonna come to wrestle this time around and we’ll just see what happens in the fight.
I see it and I can envision it. And I’m gonna do whatever I can to finish the fight earlier this time around.
Yan also shut down recent talk of a move to featherweight. He said he had only answered a question about whether he would rather go up or down a weight class.
It’s not something that I’m looking at at all. At the moment, I still have so much work to do in this division, defend this belt, win this fight and then there’s other contenders.