UFC 280 main card featured a highly anticipated men’s bantamweight matchup between Sean O’Malley and Petr Yan.
O’Malley (16-1 MMA) was returning to action for the first time since July’s UFC 276 event, where his bout with Pedro Munhoz was ruled a no-contest due to an accidental eye poke. Prior to that inconclusive result, ‘Suga’ had earned three stoppage wins in a row over opponents Thomas Almeida, Kris Moutinho and Raulian Paiva.
Meanwhile, Petr Yan (16-4 MMA) had entered UFC 280 looking to rebound from his recent split decision loss to Aljamain Sterling at UFC 273. Prior to that setback, ‘No Mercy’ was coming off a unanimous decision victory over Cory Sandhagen.
Sean ‘O’Malley vs Petr Yan’ contest proved to be a thrilling back and forth affair. Round one was closely contested but ‘No Mercy’ appeared to have a dominant second round and many thought he could be up on the scorecards 2-0 headed into round three.
The final five minutes saw Sean O’Malley land some big shots but Petr Yan landed a few takedowns. The bout went to the judges scorecards for decision and ‘Suga’ was awarded the split decision win.
Official UFC 280 Result: Sean O’Malley def. Petr Yan by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
Check out how the pros reacted to ‘O’Malley vs. Yan’ below:
Post-fight reactions to Sean O’Malley defeating Petr Yan at UFC 280:
This drew a reaction from Conor McGregor, who poked fun at Yan’s strategy. He posteda tweet labeling the Russian “the best shooter”:
“The best shooter in the ufc [laughing emoji]”
This was Petr Yan’s second consecutive loss inside the octagon. The former UFC bantamweight champion lost the rematch against Aljamain Sterling at UFC 273 after controversially dropping his belt to ‘Funk Master’ at UFC 259.