By unanimous decision: Yang defeated Yadong, O'Malley defended his UFC bantamweight title

The next numbered UFC tournament in Miami could please with an impressive line-up of participants and the presence of several top stars, including Dustin Poirier, Curtis Blaydes and Rafael dos Anjos.

And also a fight for the bantamweight title between one of the iconic representatives of his generation in the person of Sean O'Malley and the brilliant Marlon Vera.

But for Russian fans, the main intrigue was whether Peter Yan would be able to break Song Yadong’s resistance and put an end to his failures.

Ruthless approached this show on a streak of three losses in a row.

And although most of them were extremely controversial, this did not make it any easier.

Of course, on paper, Yang looked like the favorite in the duel with Yadong.

Both skill and vast experience spoke for the former champion, but the fighter from the PRC could not be underestimated.

In the two previous battles, he had the upper hand and was in an excellent psychological state, and also had practically nothing to lose in the event of a fiasco, which greatly simplified his task.

A loss to the fourth number in the ranking would hardly have affected the position of the athlete occupying the seventh place, while a victory could easily include him among the contenders for the title.

And already in the debut it was clear how much more liberated Yadong looked.

He took risks in the exchanges, tried to catch Ian with his trademark sweeping but very fast blows, and at the end of the five-minute period he even threatened to fight a little.

The Chinese literally grabbed onto the Russian and once even moved him to the floor, even if he couldn’t hold him there for long.

Yan’s corners were very frank and during the break they assessed his performance in the opening period as unimportant, calling for him to increase his activity.

But Yadong had no intention of slowing down.

He again resorted to wrestling skills, and when this did not bring the desired success, he began to fearlessly exchange blows in the stand.

And at times it was not easy for Peter.

Yes, he himself was a good hitter, but he couldn’t boast of an overwhelming advantage.

Oddly enough, the turning point was in the middle of the round.

Yan had problems with his glove, requiring the cutman to be invited into the octagon.

And this situation provoked the fighter so much that he immediately knocked Yadong to the ground, and then did some great work at close range - heavy hooks to the body looked especially dangerous.

He ended this spurt with a spectacular pass to the legs and a series of elbows on the ground, as a result of which Yadong opened a cut on his left eyebrow.

Ian caught the courage and subsequently practically never lost the initiative.

Yes, at times Yadong managed to get past the Russian’s defense, which was never famous for its strength, but he responded much more impressively.

Over the next four minutes, a couple more unpleasant cuts formed on the face of the fighter from the PRC, and Peter again spent the last one in the position on top.

And thus put an end to this confrontation.

The judges thought the same and sided with him - 29:28.

In an interview after the fight, the former UFC champion thanked the fans for their support and announced the opening of the “rematch season.”

True, he did not name the next opponent.

The fight between Yang and Yadong was the first in the main program of UFC 299, but a couple of significant events occurred during the preliminary one.

Thus, Mateusz Gamrot performed 11 takedowns and defeated the former owner of the lightweight title Rafael dos Anjos, and Curtis Blaydes inflicted a crushing defeat on one of the most promising representatives of the heavy division.

In the first five minutes alone, Gailton Almeida transferred the famous wrestler to the canvas nine times, and at the beginning of the second he could have done this for the tenth.

But he was stopped by a series of powerful Hammerfists, which interrupted his streak of 15 victories in a row.

In turn, brilliant grappling skills did not save Gilbert Burns from another failure.

The former number one contender for the welterweight title took Jack Della Maddalena to the floor seven times, but wasn't as successful on the stand.

In three incomplete rounds, he delivered almost two and a half times fewer significant blows (27:67), and in the end he was knocked out.

The holder of a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu made a grave mistake and allowed the Australian to get out of a difficult position on the ground, and a second later he received a knee to the head and collapsed on the floor.

The Australian finished off his opponent without any problems and won his seventh victory in a row in the UFC.

In turn, Michael Page celebrated his first success in the largest MMA promotion on the planet.

In the mid-2010s, he was considered one of the most spectacular and promising welterweights on the planet, capable of making some noise in the UFC.

But for one reason or another, the Briton repeatedly did not take advantage of the opportunity to try his hand at the championship, continuing to fight in Bellator.

And before he knew it, he suffered a couple of defeats and lost not only his perfect record, but also his popularity.

As a result, Page reached the UFC at the age of 36 and faced the very bright but unstable Kevin Holland as his opponent.

And although he pleased the fans with a couple of spectacular kickboxing combinations and extremely unexpected decisions, he did not cause a sensation with his performance and won only by a judge’s decision, albeit unanimously.

In contrast to the same Dustin Poirier, who already in the second round removed all questions in the battle with Benoit Saint-Denis.

Although at first it was extremely difficult for the American.

In the first, the Frenchman was very active and outnumbered his opponent three times in the number of significant hits (38:12), and in the last seconds he almost caught him with an elbow lever.

And after the break he continued to snarl, responding to the guillotine attempt with his own choke from behind.

However, Poirier got out of a difficult situation, and in the middle of the segment he twice caught Saint-Denis in oncoming traffic.

But while Benoit withstood the left straight and managed to immediately return to a vertical position, he was unable to recover from the right hook.

Dustin won the 30th anniversary victory in his career and made amends for his failure in the fight with Justin Gaethje.

After this, it was the turn of the main fight of the evening, in which Sean O'Malley tried not only to make the first defense of the bantamweight belt, but also to take revenge on Marlon Vera for an offensive defeat three years ago.

In August 2020, he lost by knockout in the opening round, but the reason for this was a leg injury, due to which the American was unable to properly defend against the Ecuadorian’s attacks.

And it was extremely interesting to see whether the fiasco of the reigning champion was an accident.

This fight demonstrated how much progress O'Malley had made in three and a half years.

Vera, as expected, relied on the low kicks that had previously brought him success, but Sean was ready for this and stopped attempts to “break” his leg again, and he himself regularly found gaps in the challenger’s defense.

And already in the second segment he almost sent him to the floor.

With a magnificent knee strike, he shocked Marlon and broke his nose, but failed to add another knockout to his record.

To Vera’s credit, he did not give up and continued to snarl both in the third and fourth rounds, although he missed O’Malley’s devastating attacks over and over again.

He was good - he controlled the distance well and “fired” at both the enemy’s head and body, and also promptly stopped his attempts to get closer.

And before the final five minutes he had almost two and a half times more significant strikes and could well have led 4:0 on the judges’ cards.

As a result, O'Malley did not miss his goal and confidently brought the matter to victory, repeating his own record for the number of hits (230).

True, in his duel with Chris Moutinho it took him less than 15 minutes to do this.

All three jury representatives took his side, and one of them even saw his overwhelming superiority in one of the segments.

Sean successfully defended his 61.2 kg champion title and took convincing revenge against Vera.