Yahya vs. Brown Fight for the Troops 2 – Photo by Tracy Lee for Yahoo! Sports
Former ADCC Submission Wrestling World Champion, and current UFC featherweight fighter, Rani Yahya (16-7) is planning a move back to the bantamweight division after a 1-1 record at 145-lbs in the Octagon.
Yahya moved up to the featherweight division after competing as a bantamweight in the WEC, going so far as to face Chase Beebe for the WEC 135-lbs title back in 2007.
One of Yahya’s coaches broke the news to Tatame.com recently.
“He’ll drop to the bantamweight and UFC is already looking for someone for me to fight”, tells Ataíde Junior, his coach at Constrictor Team, confident about returning to the winning streak after a bad sequence in the UFC. “Rani is like a chess match, you can never know what’s going to happen. We get anxious about seeing him fighting”.
The Brazilian debuted in the Octagon at the UFC: Fight for the Troops 2 show one year ago, moving up in weight after two straight losses in the WEC. Yahya would earn a unanimous decision over late replacement Mike Brown at the Texas show. He would then go on to face Chad Mendes last summer at UFC 133, losing by decision to the former No.1 contender.