Sean O’Malley was able to live up to all the hype after engaging in back-and forth war with Petr Yan, before finally winning a razor-thin split decision win.
Both the bantamweights dropped bombs during the three-round fight, but O’Malley’s skill to knock Yan off his feet with strikes that seemed to shake him multiple times and a knee strike that caused a severe gash to the face was what made the difference. Two judges gave the O’Malley the fight with 29-28 scores while Yan got the third 29-28 scorecard for the split decision.
Still that was enough for O’Malley to get the nod and the biggest win of his career by far.
” I didn’t really know [if I had won],” O’Malley. “I thought it could have gone either way. Fight the most crazy ****** sports in the world. That’s what happens when you fight the No. 1 man in the world. I got hurt in more fights than any other person. I was definitely rocked.
Dealing with a height and reach disadvantage, Yan was quick to close the distance on O’Malley while stalking him across the octagon. Yan was quick to establish his kicking game but O’Malley answered with a nasty straight right that tagged the Russian multiple times in the opening round.
O’Malley managed to avoid Yan’s takedown and continued his assault on Yan with punches to the feet.
At the start of the second round, O’Malley blasted Yan with a huge left hand that wobbled the former bantamweight champion and it appeared he might be looking for a finish. Yan responded with his devastating right hook, which led to O’Malley being taken down.
Yan also started to do body kicks, with O’Malley responding with his leading jab. Yan continued to take down O’Malley, finding ways to put O’Malley on Yan’s back. This added more control.
Just when it looked like Yan was taking over, O’Malley said not so fast after he landed a hellacious punch followed by a knee that opened up a nasty gash on the head. Yan had a lot of blood leaking from his eyes, but O’Malley continued to put pressure on him and began to tag the Contender Series vet with short punches inside.
The wild exchanges continued up to the end with the bantamweights putting everything back in the cage. 15 Minutes later, both men were out of the ring. Yan could easily have won, but O’Malley got split and is now one step closer towards a title shot.
” I mean that the people want me to be the bantamweight champ,” O’Malley stated. “We will give the people what they desire .”
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