Sean O’Malley has a theory about Petr Yan, and it’s a flattering one for Sean O’Malley. As MMA Junkie framed it, O’Malley believes Yan’s game plan changes just for him. Yan stops being the Yan everyone else sees once O’Malley is across the cage. Speaking with Michael Bisping, in a clip shared on X by @DovySimuMMA, O’Malley also made his matchmaking position plain: “There’s not even a debate. I’m next.”
That’s two claims stapled together. One is about scheduling. The other is technical, and it’s the one worth testing, because we just got a fresh 25 minutes of tape showing what Yan looks like when nobody has forced him off his rhythm.
What normal looks like for Yan
At UFC 333, Yan (20-5) beat Merab Dvalishvili (21-5) by unanimous decision to take a 2-1 lead in their series. MMA Junkie named it the Fight of the Month for October, and the reason it earned that is the shape of it. Yan dropped the first two rounds. Dvalishvili set takedown attempt records, which is about what you’d expect. Then Yan worked out Dvalishvili’s timing, took the middle rounds, and the fight went into Round 5 at two apiece.
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That’s the signature. Yan treats the early rounds like a research budget. He spends them, collects information, and cashes it in late. In the fifth, Dvalishvili came out with a big right and a takedown attempt, and Yan answered with a combination, stuffed a couple of shots, and kept walking forward. He landed a body kick and a knee, then a jumping knee to the body, then wobbled Dvalishvili with a combination. Dvalishvili kept swinging for something big and Yan kept reading it before it arrived. That’s a fighter making real adjustments between rounds, which is my favorite thing in this sport, and it’s why I don’t think you can call Yan anything other than patient.
So if O’Malley is right that Yan fights him differently, what O’Malley is really saying is that he takes away the research budget.
Why that would be the point
Here’s my argument, and it’s mine, not O’Malley’s. A slow-starting reader can afford to lose two rounds to a wrestler because wrestling rounds against Yan are close, grinding and recoverable. Dvalishvili wins those minutes but he doesn’t hurt Yan while doing it. A long-range counter striker banking rounds at distance is a different deal. Those rounds are cleaner on the cards, and if the counters land hard enough, the data-gathering phase becomes the danger phase. You can’t sit back for 10 minutes and study a guy who is hitting you every time you study him.
That’s the logic that would push Yan into urgency, and an urgent Yan is a less precise Yan. Pressure fighters who rush the read tend to walk into exactly the shots a counter puncher builds his night around. If O’Malley’s breakdown is accurate, he’s describing a matchup where the champion’s best trait, his patience, gets priced out of the fight.
I’ll take the other side for a second, though, because Yan gave us a clue in his own words. After UFC 333, he told Daniel Cormier through an interpreter, “Give me Song Yadong, give me King Kong! Give me anybody! Just make the weight, and I will take you down.” A boxing-based champion, fresh off beating the most relentless wrestler in the division, is promising takedowns. And he backed it in the cage, surprising Dvalishvili with a takedown attempt of his own in the fifth round. That wasn’t a guy who needed the wrestling. It was a guy showing he has it.
That matters for O’Malley more than for anyone else at 135. If Yan’s “changed approach” means forcing the pace on the feet, O’Malley’s theory works in his favor. If the change means Yan shrinks the distance and turns it into a grappling fight, the counter striker never gets to set his traps, and all those clean minutes at range don’t exist. People will call that lay and pray. It would actually be the smartest possible answer to a long striker, and I’d enjoy watching it.
The line forming
O’Malley isn’t the only name. Heavy’s write-up noted Yan still has rematches pending with both O’Malley and Song Yadong, and Yan named Song first on the mic. Flyweight champion Joshua Van, who defends against Manel Kape at UFC 336, said on “Outta Pocket with RGIII” that a superfight with Yan would be ideal. Down the road, Ares FC champion Aboubakar Younousov (9-0) is the name Bloody Elbow says fans want the UFC to sign.
No date, no venue, no bout agreement exists yet for Yan’s next defense. My pick for how it plays out if O’Malley gets the call: Yan doesn’t change nearly as much as O’Malley thinks, he loses a round or two early like he always does, and the fight gets decided by whether O’Malley can hurt him before the read clicks in. Against Dvalishvili, the read clicked in Round 3.