A former Bellator champion has a bold prediction after witnessing Jose Aldo and Petr Yan train together.
On July 11, Aldo and Yan are set to share the Octagon on the main card of UFC 251. The two will compete for the vacant UFC bantamweight championship. For Aldo, it’s a chance to further enhance his legacy by capturing UFC gold in a different weight class. As for Yan, it’s his first crack at a championship under the UFC banner.
Dantas Predicts KO Win For Aldo Over Yan
Former two-time Bellator bantamweight champion Eduardo Dantas has seen Aldo and Yan train together. He told MMAFighting.com that while he thinks the bout will be exciting, he sees Aldo pulling off a second-round knockout victory.
“It’s a good matchup because Yan and Aldo move forward the whole time,” Dantas said. “My hunch is Junior knocks him out in the second round. If he doesn’t knock him out, it would be five rounds of suffering for Yan, getting beat up a lot. Of course that Yan has great cardio and Junior is rising… If I had to guess, I’d bet on Junior by second-round knockout.”
Dantas had good things to say about his time training with Yan. He said that “No Mercy” was always around to spar with and he enjoyed having a young, hungry prospect to bring out the best in him ahead of fight night. With that said, Dantas feels Aldo is on another level even as time has passed.
Aldo was initially set to receive a bantamweight title shot against Henry Cejudo on May 9 for a UFC pay-per-view in Brazil. Plans changed due to travel restrictions brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, the title shot went to Dominick Cruz. Cejudo stopped Cruz via second-round TKO and announced his retirement after the fight.
Is there any chance Jose Aldo finishes Petr Yan this summer?
