Sean O’Malley is preparing for a big step up in competition this fall.
On Wednesday O’Malley made the announcement on ESPN’s DC & RC he’ll be fighting Petr Yan at UFC 280,, which will take place in Abu Dhabi Oct. 22. MMA Fighting confirmed the news with a source familiar with the plans of the promotion that the fight had been agreed to verbally, however contracts have not been signed.
Yan’s manager Daniel Rubenstein reiterated this stance during Wednesday’s The MMA Hour ,, and said that it is still not 100 percent finished.
If booked, it will be the first fight for Yan since falling short in his bid to regain the undisputed UFC bantamweight title in April at UFC 273, where he was on the wrong end of a split decision. “No Mercy” lost the title to Sterling via disqualification due to an illegal knee at UFC 259 in March 2021 before capturing the interim title seven months later against Cory Sandhagen at UFC 276.
O’Malley recently competed at UFC 276 earlier this month where he fought Pedro Munhoz to a no contest after an accidental eye poke in the second round led to the bout being stopped. Prior to that, “Sugar” picked up three straight stoppage wins over Thomas Almeida, Kris Moutinho, and Raulian Paiva.
UFC 280 will be headlined by a vacant lightweight title fight between Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev.
