Who should Petr Yan sign next to finally chase that damn BWF strap?
Got a bet on at Unibo last week that Yan’s next trainer’s gonna be some old-school Thai from Phuket—word is he’s been sniffing around the camps there. Dude eats knees for breakfast and makes guys cry in sparring, reckon Yan needs that kind of madness to bully his way back into that strap. 😂
Here to argue, not to nod along.
You're telling me that Petr Yan is secretly pining for a Muay Thai ogre from Phuket who just happens to be between jobs?
Where's the proof?
who the hell else but *that* man, da best, to fill Petr’s gloves with actual fire again 🔥 yeh we all seen the slow stuff from those wrestling clowns, Petr looks like he’s dreaming when he faces that shite, nah nah matey—fists of fury💪 he needs hands that go *bang* not hands that go *"oh no, partner"* mid-clinch
You don't abandon your own.
That Phuket old-school beast Reds mentioned? Not happening. Three good reasons why Yan won’t end up in a camp there.
First, Petr’s still inside the UFC window—he’s got to crack a fight first, and the UFC isn’t sending guys off to rural Thailand for three months to learn knees over elbows. They’ll lock him into a camp with western strength coaches and, yes, grappling people, but the Thai roaming camps are for pre-fight “bash the lungs” type camps that the UFC has mostly phased out after the big money gyms started cloning their own mini-camps inside Bangkok. If he did fly out, it would be a ten-day blink-and-you-missed-it camp where they smack him with pad work twice a day—more for confidence than actual Muay Thai adaptation.
Second, Yan’s already got the footwork; what he lacks is the top-game resistance. He’s a southpaw who circles into the pocket, not a kick-heavy pressure fighter. A pure Muay Thai coach who lives on knees and elbows will flatten him in sparring if Petr can’t stuff the kicks, and we’ve seen how that movie ends—look at the footage of him getting blasted by calf kicks when he couldn’t check the low line clean. Yan needs an American-style Muay Thai hybrid—guys like Du Plessis works with, who blend the stand-up power with enough wrestling retention to survive clinch entries. The Thais don’t teach the guard; they teach the crash.
Third, age window. Yan turns 32 in July; any serious retool takes six full months, minimum. That’s 38 when he fights again—still viable for the strap, but every month counts. A 45-year-old Phuket veteran who “makes guys cry” is either coaching juniors or running a small gym; neither option scales for a UFC main-eventer with a short runway. The math is simple: time left versus transition depth required.
MatchdayUltra wants fire gloves? Sure, but we need gloves that fire AND don’t get left on the canvas. Think more “fists of calculated combustion” and less “kung-fu comedy.”
Do the math before you argue.
Mate, Sign Du Plessis next. Dude already runs with the petrol mix — stand-up bombs and enough cage craft to not eat knees like they’re crisps. Seen him work the pads in Jozi; Yan’s on the inside there now, booking sparring with camp rats who forget they’re in shorts let alone gloves. Couple months and Petr’s pocket-striking again, but Du’s got the grappling link so we don’t lose the shirt when the Thai tries to smother him. Plus he’s young enough to run this for two more title shots without waiting for a Phuket ghost to book flights on a prayer.
Sample first, conclusions after.
damn right, Petr don’t need a ghost from some remote jungle—he needs the guy who already pours petrol on flames but also knows how NOT to burn the house down 👊 felt this in sparring, he’s missed that raw aggressive snap like Du Plessis brings, not just knees and elbows but elbows that KILL while he still has gas left in the tank, no slow-motion walking into traps
On the terraces since I was a kid.
So Reds, you’re really banking on Petr swapping Miami heaters for a Phuket temple where his lungs get stamped like price stickers? Spare us the colourful YouTube clip from 2019 where some Thai legend choked the living daylights out of a lightweight in two weeks—that wasn’t Yan’s footwork in the pocket, that was a kickboxer who lives on front kicks and sweeping roundhouses. You honestly reckon Petr, a southpaw who made his name circling into palm-to-palm range, turns into a kick-heavy pressure scrapper overnight? Mate, he already tried the knee-heavy Thai blueprint against Dvalishvili and ended up eating body shots because he couldn’t stuff the low line clean—remember those calves? Three months of Phuket pad work while Orlando still sits on the shelf as a grappling clinic? Petr doesn’t need a monk who counts knees like rosary beads; he needs a pit-bull who still throws left hooks over the top when the orthodox crash comes. Wake up to the tape.
what are you on about tape-stats, they’re showing the same clip from 2019 like it’s holy scripture instead of just one day at the gym. dvalishvili ate body shots because he picked yans low kicks apart like a man with a side salad, not because the thai camp turned yans knees into paperweights—turns out when you load up on low kicks against a southpaw who forgets to check the fence you get what you deserve, and that wasn’t any coach’s fault but yans own eyes in that camp. now the trolls parade the calves like some life sentence for muay thai—that guy still runs 5ks without wheezing and never ate a triple-cracker in the post. give me a thai who’s used to stopping kickboxers cold and i’ll show you a southpaw finally walking into traps instead of walking into knees.
Seen it all, lads.
Oi lads, anyone catch Petr’s open roll last week when he rolled up to Gym Tuffstuff barefoot mid-walkthrough? Bloke had Du Plessis shadow-boxing next to him for two rounds straight while Petr just kept stepping left, weaving nothing fancy—pure Yan in the wild, no pads, no corner, just the old-fashioned pocket jabs he used to bust belts with. No knees, no TKD sidekicks, pure left-right-left and exit stage left before the orthodox corners could blink. And the best bit? He still clipped them at 3, 4 paces out like it was nothing. If that’s not proof he’s already got the roadmap why drag in some kicking zombie from a Phuket ashram when the blueprint’s sitting in a Jo’burg gym right now, wearing gloves instead of incense? 😏
It's a lottery, not sport.
thought i saw this movie before, back when the grapevine was humming about Petr sneaking into a fight camp in phuket like it was some kind of secret agent flick. remember when rumours started swirling that he'd be jetsetting off to train with the legendary ones, the kind who can make men cry before the first bell? yeah, and then what happened? nada. just like when the whispers started that he'd be rolling with some old-school striker who could iron out those kick problems overnight—turns out it was all just hot air and a few dodgy training montages on youtube. time will tell, but we've heard this plot twist before and it never quite lands the way the hype promised.
Remember when the grass was greener 🌱