Petr Yan began his reign over the bantamweight division with a brutal win over arguably the greatest featherweight fighter of all time.
This coming Saturday, Russian fan favorite Petr Yan returns to action at UFC Abu Dhabi when he takes on surging bantamweight contender Marcus McGhee.
Initially when the fight was booked, not only were UFC fans confused by the matchmaking but Merab Dvalishvili even questioned the fight booking, stating that the division is ‘very stuck’.
Not only that but to make matters even more confusing, before he accepted the bizarre fight against ‘The Maniac’, Yan claimed he was promised a title fight.
Yan brutally finished Jose Aldo to begin his short bantamweight title reign
‘No Mercy’ Yan has long been considered as one of the best active bantamweight fighters and his former foe Sean O’Malley even named him as the hardest-hitter he’s ever faced.
When the Russian striker debuted in the UFC in 2018, it became immediately clear that he would likely one day compete for the 135lb title.
And it was just two years later when he was finally granted his title shot when he was booked to take on Jose Aldo for the vacant title at UFC 251 in Abu Dhabi.
Initially the event was set to take place in Perth but it was moved to the famous Fight Island due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The two fighters came out fast immediately and it became clear that it was going to be a tremendous fight. The Russian almost finished the fight in round one but Aldo was saved by the bell.
Despite Yan’s success in round one, the former featherweight champion turned it on in rounds two and three and began to dominate the exchanges.
But then in round four, Yan once again took over in the fight and dominated the Brazilian, hurting him on several occasions. And in round five, he finally got the finish when he dropped Aldo with an uppercut and subsequently finished the fight with ground-and-pound.
UFC 251 did over 1 million PPV buys making it the biggest outside of a Conor McGregor fight
Following Yan vs Aldo was a huge co-main event featherweight title rematch between Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway.
And then in the main event, Kamaru Usman defended his welterweight title against Jorge Masvidal, completing a huge triple header of title fights.
With that, UFC 251 ended up being the UFC’s biggest ever event that wasn’t headlined by Conor McGregor, surpassing over 1 million PPV buys, making it one of the biggest events ever.