Petr Yan is open to a move up to featherweight, according to a report from Heavy.com. That is about as far as the public record goes for now. The report surfaced this week alongside an Instagram post from Yan that was circulated on X, but nothing in what’s out there spells out a timeline, a target opponent at 145 pounds, or whether the idea depends on how his next fight goes.
And that next fight is a big one. Yan meets Merab Dvalishvili in a bantamweight championship trilogy at UFC 333 on Oct. 24 in Abu Dhabi. A third meeting between two men who have already shared 50 minutes of cage time is the kind of booking that settles arguments, which makes the timing of any featherweight chatter feel a little strange. It’s hard to picture a fighter mentally packing his bags for a new division while he’s still in camp for a title fight at the old one.
The bantamweight picture behind that fight has gotten crowded and loud. Sean O’Malley, who holds a split decision win over Yan, spent part of this week on The SuGuru Show laying out his own plans around the trilogy, as MMA Fighting reported. If Yan wins, O’Malley wants the rematch. If Dvalishvili wins, O’Malley is open to fighting Payton Talbott, who stopped Deiveson Figueiredo by knockout at UFC 332 and called O’Malley out afterward. Dvalishvili has beaten O’Malley twice, so a third crack at Merab isn’t realistic for him.
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O’Malley framed it with his usual flair. “If Petr goes out there and wins, I’m ducking [Talbott] for a tougher fight,” he said. “I’m ducking him for Petr Yan.”
He also shared voice messages between himself and Yan on Instagram, which Championship Rounds posted on X. O’Malley told Yan he hoped he’d beat Merab so O’Malley could beat him again. Yan’s reply was short and very much his style: “Sean, hello. Coming to Abu Dhabi. I smash Merab and you will [be] next.”
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That voice note matters here. Whatever Yan is thinking about featherweight long term, his own words this week point straight back at 135 and at O’Malley as the next name on the list if he gets past Dvalishvili. A 145-pound run would mean walking away from a rematch O’Malley is openly asking for, plus a Talbott fight that could develop down the line, and those are real paydays and real stakes at a weight where Yan already knows everybody.
My read: until Yan or his team puts specifics behind the featherweight talk, I’d treat this as a fighter keeping doors open rather than walking through one. Openness costs nothing two weeks out from a trilogy. Yan’s message to O’Malley came with a destination attached, and that destination was Abu Dhabi on Oct. 24, with Dvalishvili across the cage and the bantamweight belt on the line.
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