The best and worst from UFC Fight Night 136

#3 Best: That wild Petr Yan fight

Petr Yan and Jin Soo Son went to war in Moscow

One of the fights flying under the radar last night was the Bantamweight clash between Russian prospect Petr Yan and late replacement Jin Soo Son, who took the fight when Douglas Silva de Andrade was forced out. Son missed weight too, coming in one pound over the 136lbs limit. But as we’ve seen before, sometimes fights nobody’s keeping an eye on turn out to be the best.

Yan won the fight by a pretty clear-cut decision – two 30-27’s and a 29-28 – but it was a much closer fight than those scores indicated. And more to the point, it was unbelievably exciting. Yan came out looking to impose a crisp boxing game on his foe and for the most part he did, cutting him up with sharp punching combinations from the pocket. But Son simply didn’t seem to care, as he continually walked through Yan’s offense, with a smile on his face too.

It wasn’t a perfect performance from Yan either as he gave up a number of takedowns to Son, but in the end, there was only one clear winner. In terms of who managed to win over the fans, though, the answer might’ve been different. All UFC fans, regardless of where they’re from, love a fighter who bites down on his mouthpiece and keeps on swinging despite taking a beating – and Son seems firmly cut from that mould. Yan will go further – he’s been calling out John Lineker for his next fight – but off the back of a showing like this, Son’s UFC career will probably be a long one too.