Petr Yan entered his UFC 299 bantamweight fight with Song Yadong in need of a victory. After a rough opening round, Yan got his attack on track and managed to grind out a hard-fought unanimous decision victory in Miami.
Yadong fished and feinted with takedowns in the early moments of the fight, putting Yan on the defensive as he looked to avoid a repeat of his most recent fight in which Merab Dvalishvili dominated him with grappling. Eventually, Yadong exploded into a takedown and put Yan on the canvas, though he didn’t do much with the position and Yan was able to get back to his corner where his corner told him, “The first round wasn’t good.”
The second round didn’t start much better, with Song bringing more pressure and Yan worried about the threat of a takedown leading to openings for Yadong to let his hands go more freely. While Yadong did initiate more grappling, Yan began to stand his ground and fire his own heavy strikes at Yadong’s head and body before scoring his own perfectly timed double-leg takedown.
With the fight seemingly hanging in the balance heading into the final round, Yan’s grappling held up, winning striking exchanges while fighting off Yadong’s takedown attempts. Yan closed out the final minute of the fight with a takedown before utilizing top position to drop strikes and grind his way to the win on the scorecards.
The official judges’ cards read 29-28 across the board for Yan.
Yan entered the fight in something of a desperate situation, having lost his three most recent fights — and four of five since capturing the bantamweight title with a win over Jose Aldo in July 2020. Those fights all came against elite-level competition and the win over Yadong showed that Yan is still a top fighter in the bantamweight division.
“Yes, guys, this was very, very important,” Yan said after the fight. “It was an important win for me. I’m back.”
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