Petr Yan was understandably upset at not receiving the next bantamweight title shot.
Yan is 6-0 in the UFC and coming off a big knockout win over Urijah Faber. However, that wasn’t enough to earn him the next crack at the title.
Current champion Henry Cejudo was initially set to defend his crown against Jose Aldo at UFC 250 next month. But with Aldo unable to leave Brazil, a new challenger was required. In the end, Dominick Cruz earned the opportunity.
Cruz hasn’t competed since December 2016 when he lost his bantamweight title but will nonetheless get the next shot at the title if the UFC’s proposed May 9 card goes ahead.
And for Yan, none of this makes sense as he believes the UFC’s reputation has taken a big hit when it comes to the rightful contenders earning their shot.
“To be honest, moments like this in UFC kind of upset me,” Yan said on MMA Fighting’s Eurobash podcast. “He [Cruz] didn’t fight for three years and now he’s getting a title shot? It kind of upsets me and it’s a big hit for UFC reputation, in my opinion.
“… Maybe it’s because I’m not in America that I wasn’t granted this title shot, or maybe it’s because I’m not American they didn’t give me this opportunity. Maybe it’s because they’re afraid of me and they don’t want to give the chance to win another title to a Russian fighter, maybe they don’t want two Russian champions.
“I don’t think that [UFC’s] main goal, but to me it’s kind of unclear why they gave it to Cruz. I don’t think, in my opinion, he’s going to bring a lot of pay-per-views buys. I don’t know why, it’s kind of a difficult question for me. … I think there are more active and deserving fighters that could fight for the belt and I don’t understand why they’d give it to a guy that’s been so inactive for so long.”
Part of the reason why the likes of Aldo and Cruz have been receiving title shots is because Cejudo has specifically been calling them out given their name value and the fact that they would be big fights.
Yan can’t blame Cejudo for that; however, he doesn’t understand why the UFC is still going ahead with whatever he wants.
“I can’t say I lost respect for [Cejudo],” Yan added. “I know that he’s playing his game, he’s doing his part, but it’s weird that the UFC also agrees with him – that’s kind of weird.”
What do you make of the UFC ignoring Yan and going ahead with the likes of Aldo and Cruz as title challengers?