O'Malley Expects Yan to Wrestle in a Title Rematch
Sean O'Malley says he knows what Petr Yan will try in a rematch. His read is wrestling, and he already has a counter in mind.
The plan he has in mind
"I need to outstrike him," O'Malley said of Yan. He expects a kickboxing fight with wrestling scrambles mixed in, and says he also has to be ready to wrestle.
He thinks he has the style and skill set to win. He called Yan a stoic little warrior who will be hard to beat.
Why he thinks Yan will shoot
O'Malley says wrestling is not normally Yan's approach against anybody, with one exception: him. He said Yan never wrestled as much as he did in their first fight.
He gives Yan credit. Yan took Merab down, O'Malley noted, and has good grappling. But he does not believe Yan has the kind of wrestling that caused him problems against Merab.
What went wrong the first time
O'Malley describes his first Yan fight as one where everything lined up. He had a good camp and went in healthy.
It was also a step up in opposition. He had never fought anyone in the top 10 before, and his opponent was the No. 1 fighter and a former world champion. He did not expect Yan to try to wrestle him. This time he says he will go in knowing it.
Rematches on his record
O'Malley counts this as his third rematch. He does not count the first Chito Vera fight, which lasted about three minutes and never really played out. The rematch with Merab, in his words, did not go great.
He still owns the first win over Yan, though some people found it controversial. Fans have asked for the rematch for years. Yan is now the UFC bantamweight champion, and O'Malley appears to be the top contender, which brings the fight closer than before.
Our view
O'Malley's case rests on one claim: that Yan's wrestling in the first fight was a one-off aimed at him. If Yan's team reads it the same way, the plan is predictable on both sides. If not, O'Malley's preparation is aimed at the wrong problem.
No date or booking for a rematch has been given. Whether the UFC matches the two depends on matchmaking that the interview does not address.
Source: BJPenn.com