{"id":336239,"date":"2025-12-09T02:50:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T02:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/336239\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T02:50:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T02:50:06","slug":"sean-omalley-says-petr-yan-is-ducking-ufc-rematch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/336239\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean O\u2019Malley says Petr Yan is ducking UFC rematch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia\u2019s Petr Yan reclaimed the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Bantamweight title by defeating Merab Dvalishvili via unanimous decision this past weekend (Sat., Dec. 6, 2025) at UFC 323<\/a> inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (watch highlights<\/a>).<\/p>\n

While a trilogy between Yan and Dvalishvili makes the absolute most sense \u2014 the pair are now 1-1 and \u201cThe Machine\u201d just completed one of the best calendar years in Bantamweight history \u2014 there\u2019s one fight lurking in the background<\/a> that could easily leapfrog Merab: a rematch with former champion Sean O\u2019Malley.<\/p>\n

Yan laughed at the idea of fighting O\u2019Malley again.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrother,\u201d Yan told MMAmania.com<\/a>. \u201cWhen I saw that he did not like the fact I said he looks like a lady on the corner because of the way he looks, and then he saw himself and was like, \u2018Oh boy, maybe he was right, I need to change myself,\u2019 but I saw a video a couple of hours ago, and he looks the same. He didn\u2019t change. What do I need him for? I want people to improve themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Malley caught wind of Yan\u2019s response \u2014 and immediately accused the new champion of ducking him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey asked Petr if he would give me a rematch if I beat Song or whatever, and Petr goes, \u2018HAAAAA!\u2019\u201d O\u2019Malley said. \u201cEvery time Petr\u2019s been asked about me and a rematch, even before this, he\u2019s avoided it. I\u2019m not saying Petr Yan is scared of me by any means, but why? He says I\u2019m not deserving or good enough or whatever. Wouldn\u2019t that be a great reason to defend the belt? I fought Chito\u2026 He said Umar and Merab should rematch \u2014 there\u2019s that. I gotta get through Song, no easy task here.\u201d<\/p>\n

But first, logic (and merit) say Yan vs. Dvalishvili 3<\/a> should come next \u2014 and of course, \u201cSuga\u201d still has to get through Song Yadong at UFC 324 <\/a>next month.<\/p>\n

For more UFC 323 results, coverage and highlights click HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia\u2019s Petr Yan reclaimed the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Bantamweight title by defeating Merab Dvalishvili via unanimous decision…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,174978,1396,6656,14855],"class_list":{"0":"post-336239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc-323","15":"tag-ufc-news","16":"tag-ufc-results","17":"tag-videos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}