Dana White says the UFC has two contenders in the mix to challenge bantamweight champion Petr Yan next, and he called the logjam “a good problem,” according to a Bloody Elbow post on X Thursday. The headline from that report doesn’t name the two fighters, so for now the official shortlist is White’s to reveal. The public conversation since Yan’s win, though, has circled the same two names over and over: Sean O’Malley and Song Yadong.
Yan earned the leverage. Ariel Helwani pointed out on X that there was a stretch when Yan dropped four of five fights, three of them in a row, and looked like a former champion drifting away from the top. Then he rebuilt himself one name at a time with wins over Song, Deiveson Figueiredo and Marcus McGhee before beating Merab Dvalishvili to take the belt back. His latest result was a second win over Merab, this one coming after back surgery and after falling behind two rounds to none against a man who had dominated him in their first meeting. Helwani called it a fight of the year contender. Coming back from 0-2 on the cards against the best cardio wrestler in the division is the kind of between-rounds adjustment I will happily watch on loop.
Helwani didn’t hedge on what comes next. He wrote that O’Malley is the fight to make “without question,” noting that both Yan and O’Malley have beaten Song and that Yan carries what he called a controversial loss to O’Malley. His case boils down to backstory plus the biggest available fight.
View post on X
O’Malley has his own subplot running. Daniel Cormier didn’t mention him as a possible next opponent during the post-fight interview, and O’Malley told Helwani that Cormier later reached out on Instagram.
“DC messaged me on Instagram. He said, ‘Hey, I do think that you should fight for the title.’”
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O’Malley said the two talked the following night and called the exchange cordial. He also admitted he used to feel Cormier had “a little bias” against him, and that early in his career it seemed like Cormier wanted to see him lose. He said he doesn’t feel that way now. He also offered a fairly generous read on the broadcast booth: “At the end of the day, commentating is a hard job. You’re not always gonna say the right thing.” Notably, he raised Song’s name himself, saying that even if Cormier thought Song was deserving, he wouldn’t care.
That’s the shape of White’s good problem. Song has the résumé argument for a rematch, though Yan has already beaten him on this comeback run. O’Malley has the unfinished business, since Yan has long felt the first fight’s decision went the wrong way, and O’Malley brings the bigger audience.
View post on X
My take: book O’Malley. Yan already answered the Song question, and the O’Malley rematch is the one fight in the division where the judges’ scorecards from the first meeting still start arguments. Yan just proved he can solve a puzzle mid-fight, and I want to see what he does with five rounds against a rangy counterstriker he’s already studied up close. White said he has two contenders. Only one of them comes with a grudge attached.
