Somewhat lost in the pageantry and historical relevance of Saturday's UFC bantamweight title trilogy in Abu Dhabi is the fact that two-time champion Petr Yan is in the midst of one of the greatest comeback arcs in recent memory. Yan (20-5), who regained the title from Merab Dvalishvili (21-5) last December in their rematch via upset decision, will be the betting favorite when the two meet for a third time in the co-main event of UFC 333 inside Etihad Arena. And the current standing of the pound-for-pound ranked native of Russia is a far cry from where the 33-year-old Yan was just a few years ago.
In 2020, Yan was on top of the MMA world after stopping Brazilian legend Jose Aldo in the fifth round of their vacant 135-pound title bout. With a 15-1 record, a well-rounded game and an intimidating mean streak, Yan looked like the long-term future of the division. All of that would drastically change, of course, in his next fight when poor decision making led to him losing his title to Aljamain Sterling via disqualification for an illegal knee to a downed opponent in a fight he was winning. red event and UFC Fight Night is included with your subscription!
Plans start as low as $8.99/month or $89.99/year! Even though Yan responded by outpointing Cory Sandhagen just seven months later to claim the interim title at UFC 267, few could've predicted the immediate three-fight losing skid that followed, as just about everyone declared Yan as no longer being an elite threat. The only one who didn't count Yan out, apparently, was the fighter himself.
And beginning in 2024, he set course on a four-fight win streak that now has him back and seemingly better than ever. "It's just something that you want to say to all of the people in the world, anybody who doubts themselves or anyone who says maybe I can't accomplish it or maybe I can't achieve it anymore," Yan told CBS Sports on Tuesday, through an interpreter. "It's not to doubt yourself but to keep doing what they do and keep moving forward and keep believing in themselves." Not all losing streaks are the same, and in hindsight, Yan's falloff was just as much about stubbornness and disputed decisions against elite opponents as anything else.
Yan began his losing skid with consecutive split decisions against Sterling (in their title rematch) and future champion Sean O'Malley. And the third straight defeat, against Dvalishvili in their first meeting in 2023, was a fight in which Yan was severely hampered by a pre-existing broken right hand. "If you go back, my manager wanted to take me off the fight.
He wanted to say no but I said, 'Absolutely not. We are going forward with it,'" Yan said. "If you look at the five rounds of the fight, I think I threw my right hand maybe twice.
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