UFC Vegas 43: Rani Yahya Wants To Fight Marlon Vera or Sean O’Malley

Las Vegas, NV — With Kyung Ho Kang in his rear-view, UFC veteran Rani Yahya is looking towards his next fight.

Yahya (28-10-1) picked up his 13th win inside of the octagon on Saturday as he defeated Kang via unanimous decision. The 37-year old UFC veteran was very happy to have the fight between him and Kang behind him after training for him for seven months and having the fight canceled once before.

“It’s been seven months, you know? The fight got canceled on the day of the fight, and that generated more expectation to face him. For such a long time, I was training to fight him, finding people to simulate him-taller people with length and the same abilities that he has. Now, it is finally over, and I am happy about that,” Yahya told Cageside Press during his post-fight interview.

With time not being on his side, the Brazilian hopes to have his best year yet in 2022.

“I want the best 2022 ever, of course,” Yahya laughed. I want it to be the best year of my career.” Yahya said he has to go home and take care of a little injury in his eye and then get back to it. As for names, he has two in mind.

“Talking about names, Marlon Vera is a good name. We were supposed to fight once, but I had some personal things that made me not take the fight at the time. There is a lot of hype on him, and I would love to fight him,” Yahya said.

“And of course, [Sean] O’Malley. Everyone wants to fight him. I think that would be very good fight; interesting for the UFC, too because I see the UFC make him fight with people they believe he will beat. I think at this point, I’m 37, a veteran; maybe they would believe that he would beat me. So, I think it is a reasonable fight.”

Watch the rest of Rani Yahya’s UFC Vegas 43 post-fight interview above. More coverage from the event can be found below.