Petr Yan’s broken hand…

[MetaIIica]

I am interested to see how different the rematch will be between Petr Yan and Merab, both fighters claimed to have hand injuries but Petr Yans style is more reliant on striking.

Will Petr Yan be able to expose Merab if he’s fighting at 100%? Petr kept pulling punches with his broken right hand in the first fight, he was a worse version of himself.

 

[HHJ]

I hope so.

 

[loisestrad]

Healthy hand Petr Yan damn my man he is no can,

 

[Ivancho]

I remember thinking petr yan was the cardio king back then before merab.. he looked so off in that fight, but again that was a total domination. I think merab will get the w but in a closer fight

 

[HHJ]

I think even if Yan is 100% Merab is not easy to beat

 

[Pequeño Corey]

Lol Merabs hand was broken too. He could barely get the glove on. Required surgery after the fight.

 

[Portland8242]

I rewatched the fight the other day and broken hand or not that high guard that Yan uses is just horrible for fighting Merab.

 

[Whitestallion]

Dont see Marab being able to control the power of Yan Mani

 

[jeff7b9]

I see two guys running back a fairly conclusive fight where the guy who lost is now further away from his prime.

 

[BigTruck]

Healthy hand Petr Yan damn my man he is no can,

 

[Oscar Madison]

Yan has legitimate excuses for all his Losses blah blah blah

 

[jsbx45]

Merab again.

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

Injuries aside, Yan fought a bad fight and Merab fought a great one.

The takeaway from Yan needs to be that he can't give Merab the initiative - he's literally the one fighter you can't "wait and download" against because by the time you have made your reads and have a bead on his entries/set-ups he's already got you gassing and reacting to everything.

You have to bring the fight to Merab early and be willing to take chances. It's not like Merab is some control demi-god either, Yan got up within seconds of pretty much every single takedown, but he wasn't getting damage off or making Merab reactive to anything in the process. If you know your opponent is going to always be trying to you take you down, but can't control you then you might as well be constantly throwing timed takedown entry counter-strikes (i.e. flying/step knees, uppercuts).

To me the big X-Factor in this is the size of the cage - they fought at The Theater at Virgin Hotels in the 1st fight which uses the APEX size cage (25-foot), which makes a huge difference in being able to pressure guys into the cage. Now they'll be in the 30-foot regular cage and Merab will have to do a lot more to push Yan into the cage since he'll have far more time and space to move laterally.

 

[fortheo]

I am interested to see how different the rematch will be between Petr Yan and Merab, both fighters claimed to have hand injuries but Petr Yans style is more reliant on striking.

Will Petr Yan be able to expose Merab if he’s fighting at 100%? Petr kept pulling punches with his broken right hand in the first fight, he was a worse version of himself.

Grappling is pretty reliant on hands and grips you know lol.

Anyways, I hope neither guy has excuses this time

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

Yan has legitimate excuses for all his Losses blah blah blah

I've had a big rant several times in the past about how Yan always seemed to escape the backlash fans would give to fighters who coasted a round and ended up losing by decision just because those fighters usually coasted at the end, while Yan doesn't put his foot on any pedal until round 2. Yeah, I get that it's the complete opposite momentum so people may be more forgiving, but functionally speaking, you only have 3 or 5 rounds, so if you're gonna blame people for losing after effectively giving up one, he fits the bill.

Once a pattern of losses and "yeah buts" started to pile up, I think people are getting tired of it.

 

[Staph infection]

Merab dry humps him for five rounds and the real losers are the fans

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

I've had a big rant several times in the past about how Yan always seemed to escape the backlash fans would give to fighters who coasted a round and ended up losing by decision just because those fighters usually coasted at the end, while Yan doesn't put his foot on any pedal until round 2. Yeah, I get that it's the complete opposite momentum so people may be more forgiving, but functionally speaking, you only have 3 or 5 rounds, so if you're gonna blame people for losing after effectively giving up one, he fits the bill.

Once a pattern of losses and "yeah buts" started to pile up, I think people are getting tired of it.

I posted about this before - before for his three 5-round title fights (Aljo/Sandhagen/Aljo) in all his 3 rounds fight he out-worked every single opponent in the first round. That style carried over into the fights after his title reign, so he wasn't as aggressive early as he used to be, but the level of opposition was also a lot better as well. Except against Merab he out-worked Suga and was competitive early with both Yadong/McGhee even when he hurt his leg in the first round against both.

At the end of the day people want to back winners, but they'll give you more leeway when your losses are split-decisions to control fighters (Aljo) or blatant Robberies (Suga). Getting legit stream-rolled once against one of the BW GOAT's in Merab is literally his only clear loss and even then it wasn't like he got destroyed. Yan had a bad streak of misfortune (two splits, one a robbery, then catching Merab in the small cage in his ascendency with an injury), but immediately corrected the ship and rattled off some legit high-level wins in style.

He's never been finished and is always looking to hurt his opponent, he's one of the few technical action fighters that made it to a championship. I for one always loved his style and have enjoyed his career, so I hope he can pull a rabbit out of a hat against Merab and show us something special.

 

[Arm Barbarian]

Yan is a bit of an enigma.

At times he has looked like a world beater. Then at others he gives uninspired performances.

I think Merabs pressure wins out again, but I won't count Yan out entirely. He's got some pretty slick hands and could hurt Merab.

 

[10000yearsold]

I still don’t understand what Yan is even doing fighting for the belt.

UFC makes no damn sense

 

[Cope123]

Yan is a bit of an enigma.

At times he has looked like a world beater. Then at others he gives uninspired performances.

I think Merabs pressure wins out again, but I won't count Yan out entirely. He's got some pretty slick hands and could hurt Merab.

Hasn't been the same since he suffered the DQ loss to Aljo. Stupid move by him but the whole ordeal was cringe. He was winning that fight too