Petr Yan is preparing to fight Marcus McGhee at UFC Abu Dhabi. He is currently ranked #3 in the bantamweight division, while McGhee is ranked #12. Yan expressed his excitement about having a fight, mentioning the difficulty of finding opponents willing to face him. He had hoped for a matchup with Umar Nurmagomedov, a recent title challenger, but that fight fell through. Yan was eager for any opportunity to compete and made the decision to take the fight in Abu Dhabi to stay active.
"I was actually very happy to have a fight. I knew that people from top 5, top 10, there was nobody there who wanted to fight me. Once I knew that there was an opponent I was happy to fight," Yan told reporters through a translator on Wednesday.
"I said give me anybody and I'll fight them."
"I was offered a 5-round fight against Umar Nurmagomedov in Baku, Azerbaijan; I accepted the fight right away, but for their own reason, his team didn't accept the fight."
"I knew I wanted to fight as soon as possible in the next possible opportunity was to fight in Abu Dhabi."
Collection
[
|
...
]