1. Sean O’Malley is set to face Petr Yan at UFC 280 on October 22nd.
2. The bout was announced in an interview with Sean O’Malley.
3. O’Malley discusses the matchup and looking forward to taking on Yan.
In an interview with ESPN, UFC light heavyweight Sean O’Malley has announced that he will face Petr Yan at UFC 280 on October 22. The fight was first reported by MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani earlier this week and is set to headline the card in Las Vegas. O’Malley (11-1) is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Thiago Santos at UFC Fight Night 124 last month. Yan (15-5), meanwhile, is 3-2 in his past five fights overall with two wins over ranked opponents including a TKO victory over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC Fight Night 128 last year.
After months of speculation and rumors, the UFC has finally announced that Sean O’Malley will be facing Petr Yan on October 22nd at UFC 280. The match-up was originally scheduled for July 9th at UFC Fight Night 129, but was cancelled after O’Malley was forced to withdraw from the fight due to an injury.
In the end, O’Malley’s impressive knockout power was too much for Yan. After three rounds of high-intensity competition, the former champion was able to finish his opponent with relative ease in the fourth round, securing a unanimous decision victory and taking home a $50,000 bonus. With this win, O’Malley moves up to #3 in the UFC lightweight division rankings behind champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and Eddie Alvarez.
UFC 280 is shaping up to be an exciting event, with plenty of action scheduled at 135 pounds. Sterling Brown will defend his UFC lightweight title against TJ Dillashaw, while Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev will battle for the vacant title at featherweight. Elsewhere on the card, Sean Brady and Belal Muhammad will compete for the welterweight championship, and Demetrious Johnson and Ray Borg clash in a flyweight bout. Stay tuned for more fight announcements as we get closer to UFC280!