Media Petr Yan has announced that his next training camp will be at a different gym

[vivi]

Bring in the master.

For a second there I thought that was Tony Ferguson, and it wouldn’t even surprise me if it had been him

 

[Xoleth]

If there was ever a time for a change it's now - his old team got him to the title, but they haven't been able to re-capture the magic that made him so menacing and confident, he's just far less confident in his approach and ability to control a fight.

Maybe it's just one of those "spiraling bad-luck" situations where it ruins your mindset - DQ out of the title with only himself to truly blame, loses a debatable split to the same guy whose game plan is incredibly difficult to deal with (lots of moving away and holding from grappling positions), gets robbed against O'Malley to give him the springboard to the title, and then for the first time in pretty much his entire career just gets run through by Merab using endless chain-grappling to gas him before he could get in a rhythm.

He doesn't seem physically any worse for the wear, just kind of hesitant and less confident in his approach. He's never been dropped (stunned/hurt but always recovered quick), he's never been subbed, incredibly well-rounded fighter with a mean-streak and ability to blend and chain positions and techniques.

It's gotta be a "head"-thing, so I'm hoping this can rejuvenate him. Watching his UFC run to the title and the Aljo fight (despite the DQ still a beautiful fight from him, building and vicious with so many dope counter-grappling trips/sweeps/throws and creative ways to hurt someone), and the Sandhagen fight were all a joy in technical violence.

This!

He is also still young, only 30.
He is a small BW, so weight cutting doesn't seem to reduce his longevity.

 

[Harlekin]

Tiger Muay is a solid camp.
His lack of elite lateral footwork, his upright stance and more blocking than head movement really shows the muay thai background.

Time to bring his already very good hands to an elite boxing trainer.

 

[Harlekin]

Why doesn't he train closer to home like with Fedor?

Yeah great idea a heavyweight with oudated technique training a 135er. He might as well retire as well omfg.

 

[mangokush]

Nothing to do with his camp, just poor fight IQ, throwing an illegal knee and allowing himself to get put in a body triangle in 2 bouts against Aljo

Panic wrestling against Omalley instead of making a statement on the feet and worse...had no idea what to do against Merab

Great technical skills but terrible fight IQ

Should honestly be on the prelims for his next bout

 

[HolmeZy55]

He should go train with the Dagestani nutcases and work on his wrestling/grappling. Either that or go and tag along with his mate Volk in Aus.

 

[Aldo145]

Maybe aka or be humble go train with Aljo at Serra-Longo

 

[ragreynolds]

I'm not really on board with the train of thought that Yan has declined at all. I think Yan has looked just the same in all of his recent fights as he had before. He lost via DQ to Aljo, and that's when everyone was super high on him because he was very impressive in that fight. Then he had a super impressive showing vs Sandhagen. All good.

Then he rematched Aljo, and in my opinion, he didn't look much different to before. This was a split-decision loss, and many many people had scored the fight for Yan. It genuinely could have gone either way. Yan was not dominated. He lost simply because of two rounds where Aljo managed to get his back and hold him there.

Then there was the O'Malley fight, where again, I think Yan looked just as good as before. This was yet another fight that could genuinely have been scored either way. So many people scored this fight for Yan and were screaming about it being a robbery. I think Sean was just a difficult style for him in a 3 round fight. I was disappointed it hadn't been a 5 rounder, as Yan is notorious for getting better as the fight progresses, and this had been his first fight that wasn't 5 rounds since he beat Aldo to win the belt back in 2020.

Lastly, we got the Merab fight. This is literally the only one of his recent fights/losses where he decisively got beat. There was no argument that Merab won this fight. Thing is, Yan didn't even look bad. His defensive wrestling actually looked phenomenal. He stuffed an insane number of takedowns. The issue was simply that Merab was an awful match-up for Yan, because he never tires, and he didn't give Yan any room to work.

In summary, I genuinely don't think Yan has declined or even looked any worse as of late. He had two super close fights that could genuinely have gone either way, and then he had one actually decisive loss against a guy who is likely to do the same thing to the rest of the division. Changing camps might help him evolve and change as a fighter so that he can go on another run at the top again, but I don't think there's really any glaring holes he needs to fill.

 

[tasticles]

Imo yan got to high on himself. Hes got the skills, but im starting to doubt his mindset.

To be honest I'd probably doubt myself too if I gave it my all and still got fucked on the Sean O malley match. That kinda crap can ruin a fighter.