Who Does Petr Yan Fight Next?

TheMMAnalyst

TheMMAnalyst

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After the decision loss to Suga it seems like Petr Yan is kind of in a weird spot - with different judges he could be champ, instead he lost a close split to Aljo and was used as a launching board for the Suga Show.

He's 1-3 in his last 4 with the 3 losses being 2 contentious split decisions and a NC in a title fight he was winning, so it's one of those cases where the record is deceiving. He's still inarguably one of the best in the world, but it doesn't seem like the UFC is interested in him as champion based on how things transpired. I know there was rumors from DShill (sorry I meant DC) that he wasn't going to fight again, but I take everything he says with a grain of salt because he just puts out whatever the UFC tells him to.

With the recent Font vs. Yanez announce I wonder what the UFC is going to do with him.

The top 10 is currently:

Champ = Aljo > fighting Cejudo in March?
1 = Suga > sitting out until next Summer?
2 = Yan > lost the decision to Suga in October (no fight announced)
3 = Merab > beat Aldo in August (no fight announced)
4 = Vera > fighting Sandhagen in Febuary
5 = Sandhagen > fighting Vera in February
6 = Font > fighting Yanez in April
7 = Cruz > KO'd by Vera in August (no fight announced)
8 = Yadong > TKO'd by Sandhagen in September (no fight announced)
9 = Munhoz > NC against Suga in July (no fight announced)
10 = Simon > Subbed Jack Shore in July (no fight announced)

So the only realistic opponents for Yan would be:

3 = Merab > beat Aldo in August (no fight announced)
7 = Cruz > KO'd by Vera in August (no fight announced)
8 = Yadong > TKO'd by Sandhagen in September (no fight announced)
9 = Munhoz > NC against Suga in July (no fight announced)
10 = Simon > Subbed Jack Shore in July (no fight announced)

I don't think they'd do Munhoz coming off the NC and being ranked so far back in the top-10. I don't think Yan wants to fight a pressure-wrestler like Simon that is also so far back in the top-10.

The UFC likes to do loser-vs-loser/winner-vs-winner type fights so Cruz or Yadong both seem logical match-ups. Stylistically and name-value it would make way more sense to fight Cruz, so I could see that getting made.

Also the UFC could basically just say "we're going to pretend like you won against Suga and give you a top-5 guy coming off a win i.e. Merab" - by fighting Merab if Yan wins it would eliminate him from contention (something the UFC is keen to do).

So I think most likely would be Cruz or Merab - personally I would prefer to see Cruz because of the style match-up but Merab would be a great fight that would see if Yan is still a contender or not and can come up with new answers to pressure-wrestler/grappler style.

What do you Sherbros think - who do you think Yan is going to fight next and who would you like to see him fight?
 
Crazy what a year he had. I'd like to see him fight Merab tbh. Makes the most sense since Sandhagen and Vera are booked.
 
He just lost to a guy 10 spots below him. Gutierrez, Yanez, Shore, someone around there. Dude needs a W real bad.

*edit* looks like Yanez already has a fight.
 
"...it doesn't seem like the UFC is interested in him as champion based on how things transpired."

I disagree with this bit. They promoted his fight with OMalley as a #1 contenders fight but once Sean won, they decided to go with Cejudo getting the next shot. I believe if Yan had gotten the nod, he'd be fighting Aljo next.

Rankings wise it should be Mereb but personally I'd like to see him fight Yadong next.
 
Joshuaace said:
He just lost to a guy 10 spots below him. Gutierrez, Yanez, Shore, someone around there. Dude needs a W real bad.

*edit* looks like Yanez already has a fight.
Click to expand...

Yan is still ranked #2 because the vast majority of people thought he beat Suga. He only fought Suga because of his name value and that everyone else was already booked (interesting....almost as if the UFC created this situation by design...).

I don't see any universe where he's fighting someone outside the top-10 in his next fight, as beating someone with no ranking/name value doesn't keep him in the mix and get him back in contention.

Also Shore is moving up to FW, so of the 3 guys you recommended (none have any real name value), one guy is already booked and another guy just left the division.

So your suggestion is Petr Yan vs. Chris Gutierrez...

<LikeReally5>
 
Jackonfire said:
"...it doesn't seem like the UFC is interested in him as champion based on how things transpired."

I disagree with this bit. They promoted his fight with OMalley as a #1 contenders fight but once Sean won, they decided to go with Cejudo getting the next shot. I believe if Yan had gotten the nod, he'd be fighting Aljo next.

Rankings wise it should be Mereb but personally I'd like to see him fight Yadong next.
Click to expand...

They booked everyone but Suga and Yan so that the only fight on the table for Yan at the time was Suga unless he wanted to sit out for the entire year.

It seems like the UFC does a lot of this stuff by design - when they want leverage to create a fight they book all the other guys first so the only logical match-up left kind of has to be made.

Also The UFC will constantly promote fights as a #1 contender fight but unless the guy they wants to win gets the win they will frequently change their minds. Plus for all we know Suga asked for more time to continue to work on his wrestling/grappling defense and didn't want to fight in early March so the UFC figured it's a two-for-one special; Cejudo vs. Aljo in March and then Suga vs. the winner in late Summer.

I truly doubt Suga got "passed over" so much as he didn't want to fight so soon after the Yan fight - we can say what we want about him but he is a good/smart fighter and if was getting wrestle-fucked by Yan at times he needs to be working on wrestling/grappling non-stop for some time to bring his level up considerably.
 
>Leaving it to the judges

LvvKYRt.gif
 
TheMMAnalyst said:
They booked everyone but Suga and Yan so that the only fight on the table for Yan at the time was Suga unless he wanted to sit out for the entire year.

It seems like the UFC does a lot of this stuff by design - when they want leverage to create a fight they book all the other guys first so the only logical match-up left kind of has to be made.

Also The UFC will constantly promote fights as a #1 contender fight but unless the guy they wants to win gets the win they will frequently change their minds. Plus for all we know Suga asked for more time to continue to work on his wrestling/grappling defense and didn't want to fight in early March so the UFC figured it's a two-for-one special; Cejudo vs. Aljo in March and then Suga vs. the winner in late Summer.

I truly doubt Suga got "passed over" so much as he didn't want to fight so soon after the Yan fight - we can say what we want about him but he is a good/smart fighter and if was getting wrestle-fucked by Yan at times he needs to be working on wrestling/grappling non-stop for some time to bring his level up considerably.
Click to expand...
I don't want to derail your thread about who Yan should fight next but I will point out that OMalley and Sean Shelby had a falling out last year when OMally turned down an opportunity to fight on the MSG card. It got so ugly that Sean will only talk to Dana directly now when it comes to match ups. And we know from court documents that Shelby is a vindictive little prick. You can't tell him no.
 
Joshuaace said:
He just lost to a guy 10 spots below him. Gutierrez, Yanez, Shore, someone around there. Dude needs a W real bad.

*edit* looks like Yanez already has a fight.
Click to expand...

I think Yanez could be a very hard fight. I wouldn't do that one right now and Shore left the division for 145.

Munhoz, Cruz, Font if you want to build Yan back up otherwise I know Simon asked for Yan and a few others I'm sure would want to tango, Merab is another real tough for for Yan on a skid.
 
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