Former UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan intends to take a step back towards gold at this weekend’s UFC even in Macau, China.

Yan, who defeated Jose Aldo in July 2020 to claim the then-vacant 135-pound championship, has faced a who’s-who of competition since entering the UFC in 2018 before ultimately losing the world title in controversial circumstances to Aljamain Sterling in 2021 — who subsequently won their rematch by split decision a little over a year later.

Since then, Yan — who is still just 31 — has struggled somewhat, losing three of his past four to Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili in addition to that Sterling rematch. He rebounded at UFC 299 this past March to score unanimous decision victory against Song Yadong and that high standard of competition returns this weekend in a main event battle against the former flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo, where the Russian striker knows that a win is crucial if he is to harbour realistic ambitions of returning to the top of the UFC’s bantamweight pile.

But when Yan is on, he is very much on. Just ask Urijah Faber, whom he dispatched by third-round high kick knockout back in late 2019. You can watch that fight in full below.

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