Former UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan won his first fight since 2021 at the recently-concluded UFC 299 pay-per-view event.
Yan earned a unanimous decision victory over Chinese bantamweight Song Yadong after a grueling fight on the main card. Yan's three consecutive losses included back-to-back losses in title fights against Aljamain Sterling and a split decision loss against Sean O'Malley at UFC 280.
In an interview with Kairouz Bros after his win, Yan expressed his frustration at the two past decision losses to Sterling and O'Malley, both of which attracted widespread controversy. He claimed that it was an attempt by the promotion to 'break him' mentally. Yan also stated that he wants to make another title run.
Get the latest updates on One Championship Rankings at Sportskeeda and more
“Stop, stop, stop. You don’t see my fight with Aljamain [Sterling]? You don’t see my fight with [Sean] O’Malley? Bulls**t, brother. Bulls**t game. They want to broke my mentally [break my mentality]. My son told me, ‘What the f**k?’. I’m very happy [to finally get decision victory], come back after one year and my goal is the same. I wanna be number one in the world, I wanna fight for title and I believe in myself, I can beat everybody in my division.”
Yan named all the top contenders in his division and sounded off a message to UFC president Dana White, blaming him for the questionable split decisions on his record.
“Brother, I wanna beat everybody. Sterling, Sean O’Malley, Marlon Vera, now I will see title fight [main event] and then I wanna beat this guy. Dana, you know two times brother you did bulls**t for me. My two son in home told me, ‘Papa, you have to win one more title’.”
Check out Petr Yan's full comments below (0:10 onwards):
Umar Nurmagomedov calls for fight against former champion Petr Yan
UFC bantamweight Umar Nurmagomedov finally broke into the top 10 of the bantamweight contender's rankings and called out former champion Petr Yan, who just returned to winning ways after three straight losses.
Nurmagomedov is undefeated in his professional career with five of his 17 wins coming inside the UFC octagon. He first congratulated his compatriot on X (formerly Twitter) before calling him out for a fight in August.
Nurmagomedov also named Cory Sandhagen as an alternative, as the two have already been unsuccessfully booked against each other in the past.
"My congratulations Peter, a good working victory. August 3 Me against Peter or me against Cory"
Check out Umar Nurmagomedov's post addressed to Petr Yan below on X: