COLUMN: What's next for UFC bantamweight division?
In Fight Knight, The Daily Targum sports desk gives its takes on the world of combat sports and professional wrestling.
Saturday morning, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) hosted UFC Fight Night 248, which took place inside the Galaxy Arena in Macau, China. Fight Night is reserved for fights that do not make the cut for one of the main UFC pay-per-views. With that being said, Fight Night 248 was headlined by two former champions, Petr Yan and Deiveson Figueiredo.
The fight between both former champions was a thrilling main event. Yan won unanimously, with all three judges scoring the fight 50-45 in his favor.
Yan won the Bantamweight Championship by knockout in July 2020 at UFC 251 against UFC legend José Aldo. In his first title defense, Yan was disqualified against Aljamain Sterling due to an illegal knee. Sterling was in tears out of frustration while receiving his belt, which many felt was illegitimate.
After a canceled rematch with Sterling and an interim title win against Cory Sandhagen, Yan finally earned his chance to regain the Bantamweight Championship. With a chance to redeem his failures from more than a year ago, Yan came up just short, losing a split decision in favor of Sterling.
After this win, Sterling went on to successfully defend his belt against TJ Dillashaw and Henry Cejudo before his reign came to a stunning end when Sean O'Malley knocked him out. After losing in August 2023, Sterling has been able to rack up one win since and will fight again this December against Movsar Evloev.
O'Malley had one successful title defense before losing to Merab Dvalishvili via unanimous decision in September 2024. Dvalishvili is currently on an 11-fight win streak inside the UFC, one of those wins being against Yan in March 2023.
This brings it back to who will fight for the belt next. Yan is a former champion who just won a fight against a past flyweight champion in Figueiredo. Sterling has a chance to defeat Evloev, who is on an eight-fight unbeaten streak since joining the UFC. Last but not least, there is the man who most recently lost the belt in O'Malley.
Umar Nurmagomedov might be the hottest name currently in the bantamweight division. The fighter from Russia is 18-0 in his professional MMA career. With his decision win against Sandhagen in August, many feel he is up next in the division. The No. 2 ranked contender has fought six fights under the UFC promotion and is a cousin of UFC legend Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Dana White, the UFC CEO, was asked if Dvalishvili fighting Umar was the next fight he wanted. "Absolutely," he said.
Dvalishvili took to X to contradict what White claimed would be the next fight.
"Great fight, Petr. I like your callout, and I like your respect," he said. "Let's go again after two years ... Let's f*cking go."
With active disagreements on who should be the next contender to challenge Dvalishvili, the question is who most deserves the next bantamweight title shot.
