"Keep allowing Petr Yan to walk onto stuff"– Dan Hardy breaks down upcoming matchup between Sean O'Malley and Petr 'No Mercy' Yan

Sean O'Malley and Petr Yan are set to face off in one of the most anticipated three-round fights of the year. Former UFC welterweight contender and current mixed martial arts analyst Dan Hardy broke down the upcoming UFC 280 matchup.

Speaking on his podcast, The War Room, Dan Hardy shared his thoughts on a potential advantage for O'Malley against Yan:

"He's got the best strike differential in the bantamweight division amongst active fighters at 7.75 strikes landed per minute with a 62 percent accuracy, which is really, really an impressive stat...Not only is he throwing a lot of shots, but he's landing a good majority of them...Even if they're not significant shots, they're still keeping his opponent on the back foot."

Hardy added:

"Sean O'Malley likes to occupy the outside of the octagon and I think that would be a smart place for him to be against Petr Yan because Yan is an aggressive fighter. He does get impatient if he can't get his hands on people and I think that's a card that Sean O'Malley can play against him. If O'Malley's smart, he'll stay on his toes and he'll move laterally and he'll keep allowing Petr Yan to walk onto stuff."

Hardy would add that O'Malley must remain careful and use feints due to Yan's ability to slip punches, close distance, and overcome any reach disadvantage. Finally, he stated that Yan's ability to fight from a close range may cause O'Malley to feel claustrophobic.

Watch Dan Hardy's full breakdown below:

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Chael Sonnen shares one potential advantage for Sean O'Malley over Petr Yan

With UFC 280 rapidly approaching, predictions and analysis for the matchup between Sean O'Malley and Petr Yan are beginning to pour in. Former UFC middleweight contender and current mixed martial arts analyst Chael Sonnen recently shared his thoughts on one potential advantage for O'Malley heading into UFC 280.

Speaking on his Beyond the Fight podcast, Sonnen used Yan's UFC 267 victory over Cory Sandhagen to drive his point home:

"Yan wasn't able to get inside, but I left with massive respect for Yan because, even though he took those bombs, he weathered the storm. He figured it out on the fly, and he did get inside. Sean O'Malley is one of the few guys that has a reach advantage but knows how to use it... If Sean is to come out and start finding Yan early on, he just has to repeat that."

Sonnen added that if O'Malley is able to win the first 30 seconds of the fight, he will simply have to duplicate that performance for the remainder of the fight. With a potential bantamweight title shot on the line, it will be interesting to see how both fighters approach UFC 280.

Watch Chael Sonnen's comments on Sean O'Malley and Petr Yan below (starting at the 3:52 mark):