Former Bellator champion Alexander Shlemenko commented on the fact that Petr Yan is less popular in his homeland than Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“Khabib became popular and recognizable in Russia not after his fight against Al Iaquinta, where he won the belt, but after the fight with Conor McGregor, around which there was a crazy stir. Petr very quickly reached the title, and had not yet had time to snowball his popularity. Now he will catch up, I'm sure. He's a champion. He now needs to take challenges and answer them."
"Petr has an important advantage. He shows spectacular fights, and that's enough. But it doesn't happen all at once, he needs time. Moreover, he fights at bantamweight, and in Russia it matters. If we had a heavyweight champion, the coverage would have been completely different,” Shlemenko said.
