Midnight Mania! Petr Yan expects Sean O’Malley, Henry Cejudo to corner him at UFC 273 — but doesn’t want their sh*tty advice

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Just how important is a corner team? There are rare occasions where we see technical or motivational advice between rounds drastically change a fight. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Mike Perry saved money on coaching fees by getting his girlfriend to corner him and raffling off another spot. More often, that crew falls somewhere in the middle of those extremes, as the corner team is there mostly to provide support and keep their athlete safe if things get bad.

Such corner shenanigans don’t typically come into play in high-profile title fights, however. Interim Bantamweight kingpin Petr Yan lost his corner to visa issues a couple weeks ago, which could conceivably cause some problems ahead of his rematch vs. Aljamain Sterling this weekend at UFC 273. Instead, Yan went on Twitter to recruit Sean O’Malley — a contender in his own division who Yan refers to as “The Poodle” — and Henry Cejudo, the ex-Bantamweight champ that has tried to call for a fight with Yan.

It wasn’t clear initially if Yan was joking, and frankly, it still isn’t entirely clear. Cejudo will be at the event to corner his teammate Chan Sung Jung, and based on Yan’s comments on The MMA Hour, he seems serious about letting his rivals onto his team on fight night.

As long as they don’t talk too much.

“The situation now is that there were a couple guys who were willing to help me,” Yan said via his translator. “So, I hope Cejudo and Sean O’Malley, they are going to show up Saturday night. I just need to make sure they don’t give me sh—ty advice, just give me ice and water and I will be fine.”

Hopefully, whoever ends up in Yan’s corner can properly advise him on the legality of knees.

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YEAR-END PPV BLOWOUT! Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) closes out its final pay-per-view (PPV) of the year on Sat., Dec. 10, 2022, with a battle for the vacant Light Heavyweight crown between former champion and No. 2-ranked contender, Jan Blachowicz, looking to stop the momentum of No. 3-seeded Magomed Ankalaev. In the co-main event of UFC 282, which will take place inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, breakout star, Paddy Pimblett, intends to keep his momentum going at the expense of gritty veteran, Jared Gordon.

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Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.