Media Petr Yan open letter / biography

[Kono dio da!]

Damn man this guy has gone through so much already and he's still so young. I still gotta root for my boi aldo. Gotta do it. Nothing personal. Aldo has to win. It has to happen. But gosh, if yan wins I expect to see a documentary about his life.

 

[SalvadorAllende]

Holy shit dude.. awesome read. Thanks for sharing.

I never saw this side of Yan. UFC does a terrible job promoting these guys backgrounds. Some of them have amazing stories like this one (and his opponent Aldo does have one too).

 

[TriangleMonkey]

Idk, I like the dudes style when he fights but he seems to be quite a bit smaller than Aldo. But I guess I will know more about size differences when I see these dudes square up after the scales.

 

[HHJ]

Plenty to choose from. Yet I always get the impression that Dana doesn't like Russians (including Dagestanis) - exactly because of the mentioned fact that they usually DO NOT steer drama. Yan tried a little trash talk recently to hype himself up a bit and looks like it worked but I hope he stops that if he wins the belt. He has nothing but respect for Aldo tho, he said so many times.

Yan is learning english,and he like khabib def has more personality than many of the other Russians. I'm sure he will have some interesting things to say.

 

[HHJ]

Damn man this guy has gone through so much already and he's still so young. I still gotta root for my boi aldo. Gotta do it. Nothing personal. Aldo has to win. It has to happen. But gosh, if yan wins I expect to see a documentary about his life.

I respect your position. I wish either of them didnt have to lose,but I feel like this era belongs to Yan

 

[Oilcitymo]

This was a great bio! Seems like a dedicated individual, and I wouldn't mind him being champion

 

[Kono dio da!]

I respect your position. I wish either of them didnt have to lose,but I feel like this era belongs to Yan

Yeah man. Sucks it has to be that way. But aldo winning will be disruptive and it will piss dana off, especially if he retires immediately afterwards. That would make happy because of Dana's refusal to give aldo "the rematch"

 

[Ingjr]

I'd love to see Aldo win. The guy needs this W really, really bad.

 

[Hotora86]

Something about this Yan guy is off to me. I'm also Russian and I see they way he speaks (in Russian) and acts on social media and this guy is a straight Russian fuck boy. The type who'd B&E your house while youre at the grocery store. And then post about it on social media.

I know what you mean about his language BUT the man was born in a shithole surrounded by alcoholism and crime and instead of becoming a common thug he dedicated his entire life to combat sports and is living the good life now. He tore away from the bad background DESPITE the cards he was dealt - and I respect him for that. Of course that background is evident in the way he speaks but I'd really prefer if all street thugs got careers in MMA instead of mugging us normal people.

Aldo has a very similar story BTW but I don't see many Brazilian haters.

 

[Fess]

Something about this Yan guy is off to me. I'm also Russian and I see they way he speaks (in Russian) and acts on social media and this guy is a straight Russian fuck boy. The type who'd B&E your house while youre at the grocery store. And then post about it on social media.

I gonna disagree with you.
Yes, he speaks like a tough guy from a rough neighborhood, but he looks to me very genuine and a kind guy.
I've seen a lot of documentary about him, and his life, and I came to these conclusions.

 

[Nihongi]

https://amp.scmp.com/sport/martial-...russian-ufc-fighter-petr-yan-hits-back-online

Apparently Yan also has some ethnic Chinese heritage from his fathers side and got into a spat with an online troll over his Russian patriotism. Real interesting dude.

 

[PlayTheGame]

https://amp.scmp.com/sport/martial-...russian-ufc-fighter-petr-yan-hits-back-online

Apparently Yan also has some ethnic Chinese heritage from his fathers side and got into a spat with an online troll over his Russian patriotism. Real interesting dude.

Some Dagestanis love calling him "Chinese"; seen it multiple times on social media. Apparently they don't like the idea of a Russian being top MMA fighter.

 

[Nihongi]

Some Dagestanis love calling him "Chinese"; seen it multiple times on social media. Apparently they don't like the idea of a Russian being top MMA fighter.

I always found it interesting that the UFC has the top Dagestani fighters in the world while Bellator has always had the most Slavic, “traditional” Russian fighters. I’m sure there’s a bit of a friendly rivalry but some people always have to take things too far.

 

[PlayTheGame]

I always found it interesting that the UFC has the top Dagestani fighters in the world while Bellator has always had the most Slavic, “traditional” Russian fighters.

Yep, the reason for that is management and it's ties with a particular promotion. There's a guy from Dominance MMA and Ali Abdelaziz' buddy, Rizvan Magomedov. He's a Dagestani who's been living in the States for the last decade or so, and he almost exclusively scouts, brings in to the UFC and manages Muslim fighters from North Caucasus. Russians simply don't have such a dedicated and well-connected UFC representative.

On the other hand, almost every Russian Bellator fighter is either managed by Alexei Zhernakov, who apparently is really tight with Bellator since mid-2010s (Shlemenko, Koreshkov, at some point Minakov and Volkov) or is a protege of Fedor, who probably wants nothing to do with Dana (Sidelnikov, Tokov, Nemkov).

Yan is a bit of an outlier; he doesn't belong to any of the established crews, and reps a relatively new team. If he succeeds, we might see more of his teammates in the UFC, who knows.

I’m sure there’s a bit of a friendly rivalry but some people always have to take things too far.

Yeah, fans, Russian and Dagestani alike, behave like jealous immature idiots all the time.

 

[Hotora86]

isnt that all of them?

I think the only well-known Russian fighter who does stir shit up is Aleks. He's fighting Ismailov in 2 weeks BTW and already ready to take up Kharitonov's challenge. Everyone wants a piece of Aleks.

 

[Hairrow]

His son looks mean enough to take out some of the lower ranked flyweights tbh

Looks like a young Diaz with his fist raised during group photo.

 

[Make MMA Great Again]

I know what you mean about his language BUT the man was born in a shithole surrounded by alcoholism and crime and instead of becoming a common thug he dedicated his entire life to combat sports and is living the good life now. He tore away from the bad background DESPITE the cards he was dealt - and I respect him for that. Of course that background is evident in the way he speaks but I'd really prefer if all street thugs got careers in MMA instead of mugging us normal people.

Aldo has a very similar story BTW but I don't see many Brazilian haters.

I'm not saying the guys a criminal or anything, just that he gives off thug vibes. Kinda like jersey shore but for Russians. Seen it a thousand times, I'm just pointing out one of my own. Also the whole giving up your life to live a humble life of martial arts is a falsely pushed narrative by people like Rogan. Culture in Russia is different you can still be surrounded by alcohol and drugs and preform. You can easily train mma full time and still be a piece of shit is my point.

 

[Hotora86]

I'm not saying the guys a criminal or anything, just that he gives off thug vibes. Kinda like jersey shore but for Russians. Seen it a thousand times, I'm just pointing out one of my own. Also the whole giving up your life to live a humble life of martial arts is a falsely pushed narrative by people like Rogan. Culture in Russia is different you can still be surrounded by alcohol and drugs and preform. You can easily train mma full time and still be a piece of shit is my point.

I'm Russian too, tho not living there anymore and I got your point. He does give off thus vibes, sure. Bit of a gopnik but hey, he's a product of his environment. I don't think he takes drugs or drinks tho, he himself denies it and nobody ever saw him abuse any substance.

And yes, you can easily train mma full time and still be a piece of shit, but I don't think Yan is a POS. Just an ex-gopnik haha.

 

[weaselkenievil]

Thanks for posting and translating, enjoyed reading that.

 

[Carsormyr]

Man that was great to read, made me like Yan even more. We need to get some Anatomy of Fighter type shit on him. The UFC is absolutely useless at promoting.