Russian ex-UFC champ’s camp denies promotion exit rumors
Former UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan will continue in the UFC despite rumors to the contrary, according to the Russian’s manager Sayat Abdrakhmanov.
Yan suffered a second consecutive loss at UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, dropping a controversial split decision to rising prospect Sean O’Malley.
Many respected figures including former lightweight king and Yan’s compatriot Khabib Nurmagomedov felt that Yan had done enough to win the close fight, as shown in a viral clip seen over two million times where Nurmagomedov questions the result in disbelief.
This week, Nurmagomedov’s friend Daniel Cormier revealed that he had heard a dejected Yan might look to move on and fight under a different promotion after feeling poorly treated by Dana White’s organization.
Khabib reacts to Sean O’Malley’s split decision victory over Petr Yan. pic.twitter.com/lKBgU5NDvZ
— FullCombat (@FullCombat_) October 23, 2022
“Petr Yan is so disappointed in this decision,” said ex-light heavyweight and heavyweight champion Cormier on the DC&RC podcast.
“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 {has} his back. It's crazy,” Cormier added.
Broached on the topic by Russian media outlet TASS, however, Yan’s manager Abdrakhmanov debunked the rumors.
“Petr has four more fights under the contract,” Abdrakhmanov pointed out.
While Yan is now 16-4 and out of the title picture at 135 lbs thanks to his defeat, O’Malley has flown up the bantamweight rankings by claiming the biggest scalp of his career thus far.
The American jumped up ten spots in total to leapfrog Yan in the top position, with only the division’s champion Aljamain Sterling higher than him.
O’Malley initially admitted that he wasn’t sure if he had done enough to win against Yan when interviewed post-fight but has changed his tune in recent days.
“Post-fight, some of you guys might have thought I lost, some of you might have thought I won,” he said on a YouTube livestream. “At the end of the day, they said I won.”
Late on Tuesday night, O’Malley tweeted a simple: “Just rewatched the fight, def {definitely} won,” with a loveheart emoji.
