Petr Yan after his win over Cory Sandhagen
Former UFC double champion Henry Cejudo and bantamweight superstar Sean O’Malley have rejected Petr Yan’s offer to corner him after the Russian’s entire corner’s visa application to the USA had been cancelled
Looks like Petr Yan’s proposition for a star-studded corner will not come to fruition. The biggest news surrounding UFC 273 was Petr Yan’s entire team that corners him during fights being denied entry inside USA. Amidst the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and tension surrounding international political affairs- Russian fighters are suffering a great deal.
Yan had appealed Henry Cejudo and Sean O’Malley to be a part of his corner team. However he had specific roles set out for them- ice him and bring him water in between rounds. This was reconcilable with Cejudo’s idea, who likes to be invested completely when he corners someone.
Cejudo responded to Yan’s latest interview where he proposed the idea again. He responded to it on Twitter by saying,
Sorry buddy I ain’t nobody’s Waterboy! Between your knees and O’Malley’s steroids…it’s just too much illegal activity for me to be involved in. #bendthekneepotatoface
Sean O’Malley joined Cejudo in declining Yan’s idea, by saying that he would rather square up against the Russian in the future. O’Malley has constantly maintained that his dream fight in the division would be a fight against Petr Yan for the bantamweight title.
He had even mentioned it several times in past interviews that Yan is one of his favorite fighters to watch and that he would relish the prospect of a competition against him. Speaking on the TimboSugaShow, he said,
“Yeah, I’m not going to corner that fcking dude. I don’t care if he wins, I do like Petr though, he’s a funny little dude in person. [laughs] I just want to fcking square up with him, y’know. Maybe, I don’t know.”
It still remains a dilemma as to who will corner Yan at UFC 273. Many fighters have hailed Yan as one of the P4P best and believe that he won’t be necessarily needing a cornerman for his rematch against Aljamain Sterling.
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