MMA community is abuzz with the revelation that Petr Yan might be looking to leave the promotion in fall out from his ‘robbery’ against Sean O’Malley.
The vast majority of rumors quotes a sketchy twitter account as a source – however once you dig deep you’ll realize that they have no inside insight and that the whole thing got started on one of Daniel Cormier’s many shows.
Petr Yan became the bantamweight champion but lost the title via DQ to Aljamain Sterling. He subsequently lost a 5 round decision to Sterling and now he’s lost a 3 rounder quite controversially to Sean O’Malley.
“And Ryan, a little inside baseball. Petr Yan is so disappointed in this decision Petr Yan is so disappointed in the decision against Aljo that I’m hearing word that this guy may want to look at something different down the line in terms of his career because he just does not feel like maybe the organization doesn’t have his back. It’s crazy.”
Now Cormier is not one to have wildly out there takes but he also has no ‘in’ with Yan.
Yan signed a new UFC contract on Janury 6th 2022. As per Yan’s own social media post the contract is for 6 bouts and an improvement over his previous contract.
Yan has competed twice since – against Aljamain Sterling and against Sean O’Malley and had lost decisions both times.
Dana White was asked about the controversial decision and seemed a lot less unsettled with UFC 280 judging than majority of UFC vets watching at home.
ONE FC touts jumped on this rumor and started speculating about the prospect of Yan joining. UFC is unlikely to let a striker of Yan’s caliber go – especially considering he’s the former champion.
O’Malley has been busy trying to get ‘haters’ to back away from criticizing him – and he’s hinted that he’s looking to get a new contract with the UFC.
After all he jumped from number 10 to number 1 contender in the rankings skipping over the likes of Merab Dvalishvili and Marlon Chito Vera in the rankings.