On Saturday, October 22, fans of mixed martial arts expect a serious Russian landing of fighters as part of the UFC 280 tournament, which will be held in Abu Dhabi. Spectators will see a hot confrontation in the battle between Russian Petr Yan and American Sean O’Malley.

But even two days before the fight, their bright skirmish grew from an exchange of barbs in absentia into a real conflict with assault. The Russian fighter, right in the battle of views, proved that the words of an athlete from the United States are not worth a damn.

“Great original” in rivals

Russian mixed martial arts fighter Pyotr Yan (16-3) returns to the UFC octagon to once again pave his way to the fight for the championship title. The previous defeat of our athlete in the fight for the belt against Aljamain Sterling left a lot of questions for the audience, and now he needs to prove to everyone again that he deserves to lead the bantamweight rating.

Six months after the loss, the UFC management gave Peter a chance to become the mandatory contender for the championship title. But to do this, he needs to defeat American Sean O’Malley (15-1), who is ranked 11th in the bantamweight rankings.

The US representative is famous for his “original” character. He prepares for fights not only in the gym, but also in the hairdresser, delighting the fans with another non-standard hairstyle. Sugar is also known for his bad habits, which he does not hesitate to put on public display. But he earned his army of fans primarily due to wit. Only a few in the entire UFC can lead a skirmish at the level of Sean. And he arranges shows in the “cage” with enviable regularity.

Not surprisingly, the promotion bosses gave the 11th ranked candidate a challenge fight, counting on a lot of interest from the audience. But you need to understand that there were no fighters of the first magnitude in the way of O’Malley. He failed the only serious test in the person of Marlon Vera, but then the injury received by the American at the very beginning of the fight intervened.

Photo: © Chris Unger / Contributor / UFC / Gettyimages.com

“I’ll be surprised if he ever hits me”

Sean decided to approach the fight with Ian with all seriousness, at least the American announced this a month before the fight.

– I never watch the fights of my rivals. Only once did he do it before the fight with Munoz, he watched his confrontation with Cruz. But now I have reviewed a lot of Jan’s fights and I want to say that my sparring partners were chosen damn well. Their style is fully consistent with Jan, — quotes the words of O’Malley edition of Sport Skeeda.

But at times, his confidence in his own success in the battle with the first number of the rating from Russia grew into outright self-confidence. He regularly spoke disparagingly of Jan, forgetting about the norms of decency.

“Four weeks before I beat Peter. I’ll be surprised if he ever hits me. Don’t be surprised when I finish this fight,” O’Malley wrote on his social networks.

But the words of a month ago no longer correspond to reality, and yet the fight has not even begun. During the battle, the views of opponents were traditionally brought face to face, and then Yang could not stand it and severely pushed the American away with both hands. O’Malley, who did not expect such a development of events, did not have time to react at all.

The fighters, of course, were immediately moved away to avoid aggravating the conflict. But after such a sparkling rivalry in the cage, the audience is sure to expect a real spectacle.