What’s next for Petr Yan after UFC Abu Dhabi?

This past Saturday in the co-main event of UFC Abu Dhabi, we saw a very interesting matchup in the bantamweight division. Former champion Petr Yan (19-5) was taking a decent step back in terms of ranked competition as he took on 12th ranked Marcus McGhee (10-2).

Now, McGhee was undefeated in the UFC and he was a very exciting up and coming contender. However, it just felt like a massive step up for him to take on the former champion in Yan who was ranked third before the fight. That said, McGhee showed up and wanted to prove that he was ready to jump into title contention.

Unfortunately for him, there are levels to this game and Yan showed on Saturday that McGhee isn’t quite at Petr Yan’s level. From the crisp boxing exchanges to just leading the dance wherever the fight went, Yan just always felt out in front. I scored the fight 30-27 but all three judges gave Yan a 29-28 unanimous decision at UFC Abu Dhabi.

What’s next after UFC Abu Dhabi?

After the win on Saturday night, Yan made it clear that he wants a title shot next. The UFC just announced that Cory Sandhagen is getting the next title shot as he’ll be taking on Merab Dvalishvili in October. For Yan’s sake, I would imagine that he’d want Sandhagen to win who he already holds a win over.

When Yan fought the current UFC champion, he was completely dominated by Dvalishvili over the course of five rounds. All that being said, I don’t think Yan will be fighting for the title in his next fight. Instead, I think there are two fights that make a lot of sense in my opinion.

The most obvious fight is one between him and fellow Russian, Umar Nurmagomedov. If these two fought, it would clearly establish a number one contender at 135 pounds. I could also see the UFC explore a rematch between Yan and Sean O’Malley. I don’t like this one, but I could see it being a possibility. An under the radar option could be Mario Bautista, but I don’t think that’s realistic.