Two more major fights have been announced for the increasingly stacked UFC 299 event in Miami, Florida on March 9th, with Petr Yan set to fight Song Yadong, while Gilbert Burns will go up against the Jack Della Maddalena.
The 30-year-old Yan went on an impressive 7-fight winning streak when he first joined the UFC, culminating in winning the bantamweight title, but it’s been a bumpy road for him since then.
He lost the title in his next fight after landing an illegal knee against Aljamain Sterling that led to him being disqualified and losing the belt, although he did go on to lift the interim-135lb belt next time out by beating Cory Sandhagen on the scorecards.
However, Yan then lost by split-decision to Sterling in their subsequent title unification rematch and has since been beaten by Merab Dvalishvili on the scorecards too.
Nevertheless, Yan still holds the No.5 spot in the bantamweight rankings as he now prepares to fight Song Yadong, who has earned back-to-back victories over Ricky Simon and Chris Gutierrez in 2023.
In total that leaves the 26-year-old Yan with a 10-2-1 record in the UFC and he is currently ranked No.7.
Meanwhile, another big fight unveiled for UFC 299 sees former welterweight title contender Gilbert Burns fighting the in-form Jack Della Maddalena.
The 37-year-old Burns is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Belal Muhammad in May, but by that stage he’d already also squeezed two wins over Neil Magny and Jorge Masvidal into his 2023 campaign, leaving him ranked No.4 in the weight class.
The 27-year-old Maddalena has yet to taste defeat in the UFC, having gone on a six-fight winning streak since joining from the Contender Series back in 2021.
That includes a 3-0 run in 2023, having submitted Randy Brown and then won two split-decisions in a row against Bassil Hafez and Kevin Holland to take the No.11 spot on the 170lb ranks.
Yan vs. Yadong and Burns vs. Madallena bolster an already strong looking UFC 299 line-up that will be fronted by bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley’s rematch with Marlon Vera, while the recent additions of Michael ‘Venom’ Page vs. Kevin Holland and Ian Garry vs. Geoff Neal join already announced fights like Curtis Blaydes vs. Jailton Almeida and Mateusz Gamrot vs. Rafael dos Anjos.
