Petr
Yan is looking to remind people of who he is in his next
outing.
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Yan lost his bantamweight title via disqualification against
Aljamain
Sterling at UFC 259 in 2021. While Yan bounced back with a
decision win over Cory
Sandhagen, he subsequently came up on the short side of a split
decision in a rematch against Sterling. The Russian then dropped
consecutive decisions against Sean
O’Malley and Merab
Dvalishvili, losing relevance in title talks.
However, Yan started his climb back up with a unanimous decision
win over rising Chinese contender Yadong Song
at UFC 299 this past March. “No Mercy” is now scheduled to fight
former flyweight champ Deiveson
Figueiredo (24-3) at UFC
Macau on Nov. 23 at the Galaxy Arena in Macau, China. Yan’s
manager, Sayat Abdrakhmanov, says the former champ is looking to
making a statement in the fight. While Abdrakhmanov isn’t expecting
an immediate title shot for Yan with a potential win over
Figueiredo, he is certain that “No Mercy” will be back in title
talks.
“We need to make a statement to remind people about us,”
Abdrakhmanov said in an interview with MMA
Vestnik (translation via Red Corner MMA). “It’s a very
important fight, which we wanted. Figueiredo is on a winning
streak, he’s a former champion. Because of that, this fight can be
a seen as a title contender fight. Perhaps the winner won’t be the
next in line, but he’ll be among those considered after.”
Figueiredo is undefeated in three outings since moving up to
bantamweight.