Sean O’Malley believes he has one key advantage against former UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan in their UFC 280 later this month.
Sean O’Malley On His Advantage Over Yan
O’Malley is approaching the biggest fight of his career, as he’s gearing up to challenge former 135-pound champion Petr Yan at UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi.
The action goes down on October 22 live on pay-per-view (PPV). Speaking to Yahoo! Sports ahead of the contest, O’Malley was asked what he believes is his biggest advantage against Yan.
“Sugga” stated that he believes his speed is always something that he goes into a fight with the advantage in.
“Yeah, my speed is definitely my biggest advantage I would say. There’s not going to ever be a fight that I go into where my speed isn’t going to be my biggest asset or something I think is going to play a huge role in the fight.
“This fight is no different. I do think Peter will be probably the fastest guy I’ve fought, but I’ve had some really good training partners. I’ve had some good guys, good kick boxers that are fast.
“It’s hard for me to sometimes find guys that are as fast as me but my sparring partners have been awesome.”
Yan has only ever lost two fights in his UFC career – both being the Aljamain Sterling – the current bantamweight champion. The first defeat came via disqualification when Yan landed an illegal knee.
The second fight resulted in a much closer contest in which Sterling was awarded the split decision win. Despite the losses, O’Malley still regards Yan as a dangerous opponent – but the perfect opponent to showcase his own capabilities.
“I think that goes to show how good Aljamain Sterling is. Petr didn’t look so good in his last fight.
“Aljo adapted the first fight – you can look at it in Aljo came out kind of spattery and Petr was tactical and started piecing off in the later rounds and kind of dominated the fight.
“Aljo in the second fight came out with the better game plan and did what he needed to do. So I think that just goes to show you how good Aljo is.
“Petr could still be considered the champ in some people’s eyes, I thought Aljo did win that fight. It’s debatable to some. So he could be considered the champ, but he is the No. 1 guy in the bantamweight division right now.
“He’s definitely as good as people think he is, he’s as scary as they think he is, and as skilled as they think he is. I think that’s the perfect person for me to go out there and show how good I really am.”
