Former bantamweight champion Petr Yan’s next fight will be against Marcus McGhee at UFC On ABC 9 in Abu Dhabi on July 26th.
It has to be said this is a very surprising match-up when you consider that the 32-year-old Yan is currently ranked No.2 in the bantamweight division after his wins over Song Yadong and Deiveson Figueiredo last year.
Admittedly, Yan had lost to the two fighters above him before that in current champion Merab Dvalishvili and No.1 contender Sean O’Malley, but it would have been natural to assume he would be facing someone at least in the division’s top 10 next.
Instead it turns out that Yan will be fighting the No.13 ranked McGhee, a team-mate of current title contender O’Malley.
That’s not to say that there isn’t merit to the 35-year-old McGhee getting this opportunity though as he is on a four-fight winning streak since joining the UFC in 2023, extending his career record to 10-1 in the process.
Along the way McGhee has submitted Journey Newsom, KO’d J.P. Buys, TKO’d Gaston Balanos with a wheel kick and most recently earned his biggest win to date on the scorecards against Jonathan Martinez.
Yan vs. McGhee joins a UFC On ABC 9 card that will be headlined by a middleweight fight between Robert Whittaker and Reiner de Ridder, while Movsar Evloev welcomes Aaron Pico to the Octagon and Shara Magomedov fights Marc-Andre Barriault,
