Bare knuckle! – Petr Yan shows off padwork and sparring ahead of O’Malley fight

Petr Yan is one of MMA’s most talented all-terrain strikers. The Russian Bantamweight surged to title contention in the Octagon off six straight victories…

By: Zane Simon | 12 months ago
Bare knuckle! – Petr Yan shows off padwork and sparring ahead of O’Malley fight
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Petr Yan is one of MMA’s most talented all-terrain strikers. The Russian Bantamweight surged to title contention in the Octagon off six straight victories in just two years with the UFC. In that time he’s proven himself to be a potent pressure fighter, counter-puncher, and vicious ground-n-pound artist.

How does he do it? In the leadup to his upcoming bout against Sean O’Malley at UFC 280, Yan has been releasing some training footage from his camp at Tiger Muay Thai in Phuket, Thailand. Notable among them are his bare-knuckle padwork and bare knuckle bodywork sparring.

Never one to stop innovating, Yan even showed off some of his most secret and unconventional training techniques ahead of his bout with Sterling earlier this year.

Yan vs. O’Malley takes place on the main card of the UFC’s October 22nd PPV at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, Dubai. The event is set to be headlined by a lightweight title fight between former champion Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev. A bantamweight title fight between Aljamain Sterling and TJ Dillashaw is set for the co-main.

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About the author
Zane Simon
Zane Simon

Zane Simon is a senior editor, writer, and podcaster for Bloody Elbow. He has worked with the website since 2013, taking on a wide variety of roles. A lifelong combat sports fan, Zane has trained off & on in both boxing and Muay Thai. He currently hosts the long-running MMA Vivisection podcast, which he took over from Nate Wilcox & Dallas Winston in 2015, as well as the 6th Round podcast, started in 2014. Zane is also responsible for developing and maintaining the ‘List of current UFC fighters’ on Bloody Elbow, a resource he originally developed for Wikipedia in 2010.

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