Sean O’Malley’s take on the next bantamweight title fight has been changed by the champion’s return timeframe.

It’s not surprising that O’Malley will be rooting for Petr Yan to come out on top this weekend in the co-main event of UFC 333.

A successful title defense for the Russian will set up what O’Malley believes is the biggest bantamweight fight of all time between them.

While he’s still hoping that this happens, his confidence has taken a knock after looking into what ‘No Mercy’ has had to overcome ahead of his return.

Who finishes this bantamweight trilogy on top at UFC 333? 👀

Sean O’Malley has concerns about Petr Yan coming back from significant back surgery

Since Petr Yan ended Merab Dvalishvili’s title reign and got his revenge last December, both men have had to deal with some health issues.

It has been well documented that the champion has been unable to defend his belt due to undergoing a nine-hour surgery on his back.

This became a key talking point for Sean O’Malley when he broke down the matchup due to how long it could take Yan to get back up to speed ahead of what is sure to be another grueling bout.

“This could not be good for Petr,” he said on his YouTube channel. “Those surgeries take four months, five months to actually let your body heal.”

O’Malley was able to draw from his own experience to further illustrate this point.

Having been beaten by Dvalishvili for a second time at UFC 316, ‘Suga’ says that competing again six or seven months after a back surgery that wasn’t “nearly as bad” as Yan’s is the biggest regret of his whole career.

O’Malley said that his opponent had only gained confidence whereas he wasn’t nearly where he needed to be for this rematch.

“This really changes my thought process on this fight,” he said. “I thought Petr was going to go in there and dominate but that alone, him getting surgery that close.”

Sean O’Malley’s coach has his own concerns about Merab Dvalishvili

Sean O’Malley’s coach, Tim Welch, raised another point when reflecting on when they fought Petr Yan in Abu Dhabi four years ago.

While they made the trip out several weeks before the fight to acclimatize, Welch claims that Merab Dvalishvili will only be arriving in Abu Dhabi six days before the event.

He raised this as a counterpoint to the injury concerns that O’Malley has about Yan.

‘Suga’ told his coach that he recalls it taking him around six days to finally start to feel okay, which gave him more than enough time to adjust.