Marcus McGhee Hungry for Redemption in June

Marcus McGhee (10-2 MMA, 4-1 UFC) has spent the early part of 2026 on the sidelines waiting for a chance to get back inside the fabled Octagon, and his long hiatus is just about over. Two weeks from Saturday, McGhee will try to avenge his first defeat under the UFC banner inside Meta Apex in Enterprise, NV.

Originally booked to fight Jakub Wiklacz (18-3-2 MMA, 2-0 UFC) during UFC Vegas 118 on June 6, McGhee will now square off against John Yannis (10-4 MMA, 1-1 UFC) after Wiklacz was forced to withdraw from the event due to injury. This fight is a three-round contest at five minutes per round.

The June 6 tilt will mark Marcus McGhee's first since July 26 of last year during the final UFC Fight Night on the ABC Television Network. That night, he drew the assignment of Petr Yan, with the latter taking the contest by way of unanimous decision. Yan has since won the UFC Bantamweight Championship via unanimous decision against Merab Dvalishvili in December.

Marcus McGhee Talks About Loss to Eventual Champion

Recently, McGhee was interviewed by USA Today's MMA Junkie on a variety of topics, his defeat to Petr Yan included. He mentioned that he's not slighted about appearing on the UFC Vegas 118 undercard on Paramount Plus.

"I could let it bother me," Marcus McGhee began. "You control things that you can control and then just do the work. If there was a moment where it was bothering me, where certain things were bothering me, I've gotten a lot past it. A fight's a fight."

As previously mentioned, Petr Yan followed up his July 26 victory over McGhee with a UFC Bantamweight Championship triumph on Dec. 6.  Marcus McGhee opened up on the takeaways from that contest.

"I think I learned that I'm at that level, that I can compete with the guys at the highest level," he said. "I think I also learned that there's times that you have to be cautious and there's times that we've got to throw caution to the wind."

Marcus McGhee on Lessons Learned About Himself

Beyond the takeaways from the fight itself on July 26 of last year, McGhee also mentioned that the loss served as an important stepping stone in his own development as a competitor at 135.

"I also learned a lot about my character," he continued, "just the fact of how I show up, how I'm a professional, how I carry myself. I respect, out of all of it, the way I carried myself to go across seas to step up to a challenge like that to compete like I competed, it just gave me a lot more respect for the character that I bring to the table.

McGhee hasn't fought since that contest. He said that there's no specific reason for the layoff.

"I've been waiting for the call," he mentioned. "I kept getting 'Hey, we're going to get you hey, we're going to get you, hey, we're going to get you' and then nothing would pop up. I've just been waiting around. I don't know whose feathers I ruffled. I must have ruffled somebody's feathers somewhere."

Marcus McGhee Unfazed by John Yannis Before June 6 Fight

While John Yannis doesn't possess quite the same resume and pedigree that Petr Yan owns, it doesn't matter one bit for Marcus McGhee, who's prepared for any eventuality once fight night happens.

"Obviously, he's going to come to fight," McGhee said of Yannis. "He's tough. He's got that win He's got some momentum behind him. He's going to take what I have, so I'm not downplaying him at all. He obviously feels confident in the fact that he can come and beat me. I definitely think there's a lot of different areas that I can get the win and get the finish."