Unlike Georges St-Pierre, Sean O’Malley was impressed by Petr Yan’s performance.
In December, Yan rematched Merab Dvalishvili for the bantamweight title at UFC 323. After losing their first fight badly,
Yan was a major underdog to Dvalishvili, but he beat the odds and delivered one of the best performances of the year, outworkingthe champion for 25 minutes to reclaim the bantamweight title.
Having lost two fights to Dvalishvili himself, O’Malley was left super impressed by Yan’s win.
“That was so sick. Petr’s always been one of my favorite fighters to watch,” O’Malley said on the Death Row MMA podcast. “I remember him coming up I was like, ‘God, damn, this motherf*cker is so skilled. There’s just something about — he’s a little Russian, he’s f*cking balding; he’s a scary little dude. So he’s always been one of my favorite fighters to watch. Mean little f*cker.
“I recently watched his last fight with Merab a couple days ago, and it was such a beautiful performance. Him elbowing his forearm, and Merab, after the first round, holding it. It was just such a beautiful performance. It was one of the sickest performances I’ve ever seen. …
“[Dvalishvili] was two for 24 or something, takedowns. He only officially scored two takedowns. His defensive wrestling was so slick. And then [Yan] slamming Merab on his head and taking him down a few other times, it was such a beautiful performance.”
O’Malley has a long history with Dvalishvili, having lost twice to “The Machine,” first dropping the bantamweight title to him in 2024 and then losing their rematch in June of last year. He also has a history with Yan, having fought him at UFC 280 in 2022, when O’Malley won a split decision to launch himself into title contention. Now, O’Malley is set to fight Song Yadong at UFC 324 later this month, and if he beats Song, “Suga” believes Yan will get another opportunity to get a win back, this time against him.
“I think I go out there and beat Song, me vs. Petr at the White House just makes sense,” O’Malley said. “What’s a bigger fight than that? If we’re going off just pure, big fights. If we’re going off what makes the absolute most sense, which is not always what the UFC goes off of, I think Merab deserves a title shot. But if you’re going off what the f*ck is the biggest fight, me vs. Petr, rematch at the White House seems like the biggest fight.”
UFC 324 takes place on Jan. 24 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and will be headlined by an interim lightweight title fight between Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett.
