If Sean O’Malley wants to “chill” on the sidelines while Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili settle their trilogy, a strategy that appears to have triggered this former two-division champion, then “Suga” could be out of action until early 2027.
That’s because the 32 year-old Yan just underwent major back surgery and told his Instagram followers that he was under anesthesia for nine hours.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is, Yan (20-5) expects to recover within a couple of months. That would put his first training camp at or near the start of summer with a late fall title defense — assuming his recovery goes according to plan. If not, we could be looking at another interim title.
Let’s hope not.
Time will tell.
