Sean O’Malley believes Petr Yan may have made a mistake ahead of his trilogy bout with Merab Dvalishvili.
On Saturday, Yan defends his bantamweight title in a trilogy bout with Dvalishvili in the co-main event of UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi. Dvalishvili won their first fight, a non-title bout at UFC Las Vegas in 2023, but Yan got his revenge this past September, dominating Dvalishvili to claim the bantamweight title at UFC 323.
The two were expected to settle their business sooner than this weekend, but Yan had lumbar surgery in January, going under the knife for nine hours. Before his own rematch with Dvalishvili in 2025, O’Malley did something similar, having labrum surgery to repair his hip, and comparing the situations, “Suga” believes Yan might be rushing back too soon.
“Assuming he had surgery in January, this is nine months later. … Bro, I got not nearly as bad of a surgery, I got labrum surgery, and I fought Merab seven months after, and that’s my biggest regret of my whole career,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “I fought with a torn labrum, wasn’t my biggest regret. My biggest regret was getting surgery and fighting like six, seven months later, Merab again, after he’s coming off a win over Umar. I was not nearly where I needed to be, and he was extra confident. So this could not be good for Petr. If he’s coming in there — those surgeries take four months, five months to actually let your body heal. …
“It really changes my thought process on this fight. I thought Petr was going to go in there and dominate, but that alone, him getting surgery that close, sounds [bad].”
There aren’t specific details on what the exact purpose of Yan’s surgery was; thus, it’s unclear exactly what an expected recovery timeline should look like. However, if Yan isn’t compromised by his recent surgery, O’Malley thinks he’s a real problem for Dvalishvili, and regardless, he’s hoping for a Yan win.
“Pete is no joke. He is no god damn joke,” O’Malley said. “He’s one of the scariest guys in the UFC. 100 percent. I’m pushing for him to win. I want him to win. There’s a level of, like, ‘Woo! Alright, we’re fighting Petr again. Five rounds.’ That nervousness you get when there’s a big f*cking fight like that against such a killer, such a scary guy, is, I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like, alive, holy f*ck, we’re really going to war with this motherf*cker again.
“Last time was three rounds, four years ago, almost to the date. We fought Oct. 22 in 2022, Abu Dhabi. He’s defending his belt, and if he wins, we get it. We’re next. We are f*cking next. I’m putting that out there. I don’t know what the f*ck else. They’re going to have Song fight Petr? Petr beat Song. Mario’s definitely in the mix, but I just think me vs. Petr will be the biggest fight in bantamweight history; a rematch, and it’s going to be massive.
“So, obviously rooting for Petr, but I do like Merab. He’s a good f*cking guy. I like the fella.”