Former UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan won his first fight since 2021 at the recently-concluded UFC 299 pay-per-view event.
Petr Yan earned a unanimous decision victory over Chinese bantamweight Song Yadong after a grueling fight on the main card. Yan’s three consecutive losses included back-to-back losses in title fights against Aljamain Sterling and a split decision loss against Sean O’Malley at UFC 280.
In an interview with Kairouz Bros after his win, Yan expressed his frustration at the two past decision losses to Sterling and O’Malley, both of which attracted widespread controversy. He claimed that it was an attempt by the promotion to ‘break him’ mentally. Yan also stated that he wants to make another title run.
“Stop, stop, stop. You don’t see my fight with Aljamain [Sterling]? You don’t see my fight with [Sean] O’Malley? Bulls**t, brother. Bulls**t game. They want to broke my mentally [break my mentality]. My son told me, ‘What the f**k?’. I’m very happy [to finally get decision victory], come back after one year and my goal is the same. I wanna be number one in the world, I wanna fight for title and I believe in myself, I can beat everybody in my division.”
Petr Yan named all the top contenders in his division and sounded off a message to UFC president Dana White, blaming him for the questionable split decisions on his record.
“Brother, I wanna beat everybody. Sterling, Sean O’Malley, Marlon Vera, now I will see title fight [main event] and then I wanna beat this guy. Dana, you know two times brother you did bulls**t for me. My two son in home told me, ‘Papa, you have to win one more title’.”
Check out Petr Yan’s full comments below (0:10 onwards):