Petr Yan Accuses the UFC of Showing Favoritism Toward Sean O’Malley

Petr thinks UFC gave a present to Omalley as the second title fight after losses:

"Everybody knows UFC gave a present to O'Malley a second time. When I was fighting O'Malley, I beat him. UFC gave him a present there, and now they gave him a title fight. He's a chicken — a guy… pic.twitter.com/WgFzzUU4pF

— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA) May 6, 2025

Petr Yan believes the Ultimate Fighting Championship is biased towards Sean O'Malley.

O’Malley (18-2) will try to regain his bantamweight title against Merab Dvalishvili (19-4) at UFC 317 on June 7 at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Yan doesn’t consider O’Malley worthy of a title shot and thinks he is being favored by the UFC.

And that is not new to Yan, 18-5, who believes he was robbed in his split-decision loss against O’Malley in 2022. “No Mercy” thinks O’Malley is a “chicken guy” who is privileged as he is a big draw.

“Everybody know[s] UFC give present for O'Malley second time,” Yan told Submission Radio. “When [I was] fighting O'Malley, I beat him. UFC gave him present there, and now they give him title fight. He's a chicken guy, [a guy for] UFC to make money.”

Yan lost his title to Aljamain Sterling via disqualification due to an illegal knee in 2021. The Russian then failed to regain the belt in their rematch next year. Then followed a controversial split decision loss against O’Malley which earned “Suga” an immediate title shot. O’Malley dethroned Sterling via knockout while Yan faded away from the title picture with another unanimous decision loss against Dvalishvili. Meanwhile, O’Malley defended his title just once against Marlon Vera before losing it to Dvalishvili. And Yan has since bounced back with decision wins over Song Yadong and Deiveson Figueiredo to make his case for another title run.