Petr Yan is looking to remind people of who he is in his next outing.
Yan lost his bantamweight title via disqualification against Aljamain Sterling at UFC 259 in 2021. While Yan bounced back with a decision win over Cory Sandhagen, he subsequently came up on the short side of a split decision in a rematch against Sterling. The Russian then dropped consecutive decisions against Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili, losing relevance in title talks.
However, Yan started his climb back up with a unanimous decision win over rising Chinese contender Yadong Song at UFC 299 this past March. “No Mercy” is now scheduled to fight former flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo (24-3) at UFC Macau on Nov. 23 at the Galaxy Arena in Macau, China. Yan’s manager, Sayat Abdrakhmanov, says the former champ is looking to making a statement in the fight. While Abdrakhmanov isn’t expecting an immediate title shot for Yan with a potential win over Figueiredo, he is certain that “No Mercy” will be back in title talks.
“We need to make a statement to remind people about us,” Abdrakhmanov said in an interview with MMA Vestnik (translation via Red Corner MMA). “It’s a very important fight, which we wanted. Figueiredo is on a winning streak, he’s a former champion. Because of that, this fight can be a seen as a title contender fight. Perhaps the winner won’t be the next in line, but he’ll be among those considered after.”
Figueiredo is undefeated in three outings since moving up to bantamweight.
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