Who Does Petr Yan Face Next After Big UFC 333 Win?

Petr Yan put a stamp on the bantamweight division as he ended his rivalry with Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 333. After a rivalry that stood at 1-1, Yan had to come from behind against his Georgian counterpart to have his hand raised in Abu Dhabi.

After the first two rounds, which largely saw Yan defending takedowns, the third round saw a big switch in the fight. The champion began to hurt Merab on the feet, continued his forward momentum and went back to what won him the belt last year. Yan hurt Merab to the liver again, got his jab working in a vicious manner and punished Merab's fading gas tank.

All three judges had the challenger winning the first two, with the champion showing elite mentality to rally and snatch the fight from Dvalishvili.

With plenty of options, we take a look at who could be next for 'No Mercy' and there are seemingly only two options.

Matchmaking Petr Yan

Sean O'Malley

This one makes perfect sense. The UFC wants Sean O'Malley in big fights. He headlined the UFC Sphere event and also featured on the White House card. Dana White and co. love Sean O'Malley. The reason that this one makes so much sense is that Sean O'Malley has a legitimate claim to a title shot at Yan... that he already has a win over the Russian.

The two men went to war at UFC 280 with Suga coming away with the victory. There's no way that Petr Yan would turn down the chance to get that one back.

Song Yadong

The man the UFC could be pushing is Song Yadong. He was cageside at UFC 333, with the camera cutting to him after the co-main event. Daniel Cormier also asked Petr Yan about the possibility of fighting Song Yadong next in his post-fight interview, and Yan responded in an epic manner, "Give me Song Yadong, give me King Kong, give me anybody".

Yadong is coming off a huge knockout win over Umar Nurmagomedov and has positioned himself extremely well in the division.