Petr Yan willing to face rising bantamweight if Cory Sandhagen rejects UFC title eliminator
Petr Yan is eager to stay active in his pursuit to reclaim the UFC bantamweight title.
Yan (18-5 MMA, 10-4 UFC) called out Cory Sandhagen (18-5 MMA, 11-4 UFC) after Sandhagen defeated Deiveson Figueiredo in Saturday's UFC on ESPN 67 main event in Des Moines, Iowa. Sandhagen wants a title shot next, but Yan pitched a title eliminator instead.
Sandhagen lost to Yan in their interim title fight at UFC 267 in October 2021. Yan wasn't able to reclaim his bantamweight title when he lost to Aljamain Sterling a second time, which resulted in a three-fight losing skid. However, Yan has now won back-to-back fights over Song Yadong and Figueiredo, and doesn't like Sandhagen asking for a title shot after just one win.
"Last fight with Umar, Cory lost," Yan told Submission Radio. "If you remember my fight with Cory, 2021, I beat him too, and after I lose fight, I won two fights. Won two (against) good fighters. Song Yadong, he's a top fighter, same Figueiredo. I believe title fight (is next). If Cory wants to fight, we can do a rematch with him, same time, July in Abu Dhabi, Fight Night. I can give him a rematch, and we will know who deserves the title fight."
If not Sandhagen, Yan is willing to fight anyone who will get him back to a title fight. He was asked about rumors surrounding a fight with rising bantamweight Marcus McGhee.
"It's not fake," Yan said of rumors of McGhee. "I want to be active in my sport career, I want to fight. We tried to fight in Azerbaijan with Umar (Nurmagomedov). When he have injury, he can't fight in June, July. His team don't talk nothing. They team Khabib talk, he will be ready only October. I can't wait until October. October will be one year I don't fight. I want to fight June, July, I will be ready. ... I will fight with McGhee. If he ready, we can do it. We can do big fight, big show.
"If Cory doesn't want to find out who really deserves the next shot in a fight, which I really doubt that he wants because he remembered what happened in the last fight, last time before his last fight, he was telling that he's better, but what happens? He had to stand up from the canvas in that fight. So of course, if no one else is available or no one else wants it, I will fight someone who who wants, and if it's McGhee, then it's McGhee. I want to stay active, and I want to prove with my actions that I'm the one who deserves to fight for the belt, not just by winning one fight and just waiting for it for the shot."
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