Born February 11, 1993, Yan came out of Dudinka in northern Russia and built his foundation in boxing before moving to mixed martial arts. He turned pro in the mid-2010s and joined the UFC in 2018, where his hands and ring craft set him apart from a crowded contender pool. He won the vacant bantamweight title in July 2020 by stopping José Aldo, per ESPN’s career coverage, then lost the belt by disqualification against Aljamain Sterling in March 2021 after an illegal knee. He took interim gold back months later against Cory Sandhagen, setting up the rematch that would define the next phase of his career.
In the cage, Yan is a pressure boxer with a high-volume jab, sharp body work and a kicking game that opens up late. His career significant-strike accuracy sits at 60.8%, with a pace above five landed per minute. Takedown defense and ring generalship are his other anchors — at UFC 323, he stuffed 27 of 29 Dvalishvili attempts. His weaknesses, well documented in his 2022-2023 stretch, have been cardio under sustained grappling pressure and tight scorecards in five-round fights. See the split-decision losses to Sterling and Sean O’Malley.
The career highlights map the comeback. After dropping the split-decision rematch with Sterling at UFC 273, the O’Malley loss at UFC 280, and a one-sided five-round defeat to Dvalishvili in March 2023, Yan rebuilt with three straight unanimous decisions: Song Yadong at UFC 299, Deiveson Figueiredo at the UFC Macau card in November 2024, and Marcus McGhee at UFC Abu Dhabi in July 2025. That run earned him the title shot he had been chasing in public. “I was told that I can wait and I’ll be next in line for the title, but I don’t want to wait,” he told Gorilla Energy in June 2025. The McGhee win, against an undefeated UFC prospect, sealed the matchup with Dvalishvili.
Yan sits atop the UFC bantamweight division for the second time, with judges scoring his rematch with Dvalishvili 49-46 twice and 48-47 once. The next challenger pool is deep — Cory Sandhagen, Sean O’Malley and Umar Nurmagomedov are all in play, and Dvalishvili has a clear claim to a trilogy. The question hanging over Yan’s second reign is whether his measured, output-based striking can hold up across multiple defenses in a division that has historically chewed through its champions. On the evidence of UFC 323, it can.