Petr Yan has no plans to retire by age 30, confirms agent

Former UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan has no plans to retire by age 30, confirmed his agent Sayat Abdrakhmanov.

Yan returns to the Octagon next weekend at UFC 267 when he takes on Cory Sandhagen for the interim UFC bantamweight title. Yan was originally set to fight rival Aljamain Sterling in a rematch, but after Sterling was forced out of the fight due to a neck injury, it was Sandhagen who got the call on short notice. For Yan, it’s a tremendous opportunity to win back the interim 135lbs belt and set himself up for a rematch with Sterling next year.

Recently, there was a report that came out suggesting that Yan will consider hanging up his MMA gloves at age 30. Given that he’s currently 28, that would give him just two more years in MMA. However, his team is now denying any sorts of retirement rumors. Speaking to The AllStar’s John Hyon Ko, Yan’s manager Abdrakhmanov denied the retirement rumor.

“There’s no plan like that. In his head, he wanna make as much money, make as much title defenses possible before he turns 30. And after that, who knows what’s going to happen. I don’t believe he’s going to retire when he’s 30. Because Petr Yan is a guy who loves to fight. He loves being in a cage like he enjoys it. The only time you can see him smiling when he’s  beating the shit out of someone in the cage. So he’s not the guy who’s going to retire early cause he loves it so much,” Abdrakhmanov said. “He’s just a guy who don’t want to be in some fights, he wanna be in big fights. He wanna make big money facing the toughest opponents available. If that is not on the table maybe he can consider retirement. But I don’t believe it will be happening in two years.”

How much longer do you see Petr Yan fighting in MMA for?