O’Malley says Petr Yan fought ‘super emotional’ at UFC 273, needed to ‘settle down’

Sean O’Malley prepares to take on Andre Soukhamthath at UFC 222. | Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

“I should have been in his corner and told him, Yo, Petr, settle down, bud.’” Sean O’Malley thin…


UFC 222: Cyborg v Kunitskaya
Sean O’Malley prepares to take on Andre Soukhamthath at UFC 222. | Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

“I should have been in his corner and told him, Yo, Petr, settle down, bud.’”

Sean O’Malley thinks Petr Yan’s emotions got the better of him at UFC 273.

O’Malley chalked Yan’s split decision loss to Aljamain Sterling on Saturday to ‘No Mercy’ wanting to knock ‘Funk Master’s’ head off from the opening bell.

‘Suga’ would have advised the former UFC bantamweight champion to ‘settle down’ and compose himself in between rounds rather than fight ‘super emotional’ and hunt for the knockout.

“(Petr) Yan’s takedown defense, other than the two times he got his back taken, is so elite,” Sean O’Malley said on his podcast (h/t MiddleEasy). “The hips, hand on the head, he’s got some sick takedown defense. But he fought so emotional from the beginning of the fight. So emotional.”

“Those looping punches… he (Petr Yan) fought super emotional. I should have been in his corner and told him, Yo, Petr, settle down, bud.’ I’ll take that ‘L’. That was my fault.”

O’Malley then heaped praise on Sterling for unifying the bantamweight titles and showing a ‘championship mindset’ after being written off by the critics following his DQ win over Yan last year.

“It was impressive, (Aljamain) Sterling’s mindset going into that fight,” O’Malley said. “Considering what had already happened to him in the previous fight… Towards the end of the (fourth) round, he was getting manhandled. At the end of the fight, for him to go in with that mindset of not letting that affect him, was super impressive. It showed championship mindset for sure.”

Sterling slammed the critics and naysayers following the fight and called for the haters to fill out an ‘Apology Form’.