Bare knuckle! – Yan shows off padwork and sparring

Petr Yan gets his hands wrapped ahead of his title fight rematch against Aljamain Sterling. | Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC

Petr Yan is gearing up for a PPV bout against Sean O’Malley later this month, and he’s been ge…


Petr Yan gets his hands wrapped ahead of his title fight rematch against Aljamain Sterling.
Petr Yan gets his hands wrapped ahead of his title fight rematch against Aljamain Sterling. | Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC

Petr Yan is gearing up for a PPV bout against Sean O’Malley later this month, and he’s been getting ready with some dangerous training techniques.

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.