Petr Jevgenyevich Yan grew up in Dudinka, Siberia, in the Krasnoyarsk region, in a family with Chinese and Georgian-Russian roots. As a child, he often got into confrontations with others in the street, prompting his family to move several times. Through his older brother, who boxed himself, Yan took up boxing at a young age and attained the rank of “Master of Sport” after eight years of training. He combined his combat sports career with studying Physical Education and Sport at Siberian Federal University.
Yan made his debut in the Russian regional MMA scene in 2014 and soon signed with Absolute Championship Berkut (ACB), where he won the bantamweight Grand Prix tournament in 2015 and captured the ACB title in 2017. This run of results opened the door to the UFC, where he made his debut in 2018 with a first-round knockout.
In July 2020, Yan won the vacant UFC bantamweight title by stopping José Aldo in the fifth round. However, his first reign ended abruptly when he lost his title by disqualification against Aljamain Sterling in 2021 after an illegal knee strike. Yan bounced back by winning the interim title against Cory Sandhagen, but lost the subsequent unification bout to Sterling and also lost to Sean O’Malley.
After a defeat to Merab Dvalishvili in 2023, Yan fought his way back with victories over Song Yadong, Deiveson Figueiredo, and Marcus McGhee. In December 2025, he defeated Dvalishvili by unanimous decision and reclaimed the UFC bantamweight title. In early 2026, he underwent a nine-hour back surgery, delaying his first title defense.
Russia
