He’s continuing to improve every single fight and he’s not at his full potential yet. He’s getting close, for sure, but he’s not there yet, and that’s really scary to think about given how far he’s separated himself from the division already.
If you’re any of these guys in the conversation around No. 1 contender or up next, you’ve got to be sweatin’ bullets a little bit, thinking, “This guy has some weaknesses, but largely he has a ton of strengths and he continues to improve on those.” It has to be a scary thought, man. Beating him is a tall task.
Kyte: That’s the tricky part because you never want to psyche yourself out and you’ve gotta go into these things believing “I can beat this guy.” You’ve gotta have that reasonable delusion like Cory talked about with McKenzie (Pavacich) going into their fight, and you absolutely have to think like that…
Madden: A hundred percent — it is an absolute requirement of this job, particularly at that level.
Order UFC 323: Dvalishvili vs Yan 2
Kyte: For sure, but I would also understand the moments where you look at it and have that doubt, have that real brief pause from the delusion too.
With Yan, when you mention the IQ, I agree wholeheartedly. I think more than most people, he maps out his fights really well, and we see that where the first round is essentially a throwaway — he loses the first round just about every time, but it’s with reason, it’s with purpose.
How do you contextualize something like that for people? There are going to be people where this is their first time seeing Petr Yan, watching him fight, so as a coach, how do you assess that from a strategic standpoint and explain it to people?
I want to be clear: I don’t think he’s intentionally losing rounds, but he’s not worried about losing the round either because he knows what he’s taking away from it.