Song Yadong’s former foe “thought Song took that [Sean O’Malley] fight” at UFC 324

Song Yadong had a hotly contested bout in the first quarter of 2026 with Sean O’Malley and while he came out on the losing end, a prior opponent of the Chinese combatant felt like he should have received the nod against ‘Suga’ at UFC 324.

The referenced mixed martial artist is Julio Arce who discussed the Yadong-O’Malley bout ahead of his own fight at PFL Pittsburgh against Alexei Pergande on March 28th. Arce competed against Song Yadong in the UFC octagon in November 2021 in an affair that saw the former lose to the latter. When discussing Yadong’s recent fight against Sean O’Malley on January 24th, Arce said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],

“In my opinion, I thought that Song [Yadong] took that fight. It was actually; it was very close. It was very close. I thought Song took that fight but again, it gets left in judges’ hands. Who knows? They might see; a lot of people see it one way, then some people see it the other way. But I thought Song took that fight and, you know what, guess he’s kind of back to the drawing board. But look, he’s made it to; he’s what? In the top 10. He’s a beast.”

Song Yadong returns for UFC Macau headliner against ex-UFC champion

Song Yadong will be a big part of UFC’s upcoming run of shows at Galaxy Arena in Macau as the number five ranked contender will clash with the number seven bantamweight contender who has also previously held gold in the UFC.

Yadong will look to show out as the partisan favorite here and turn his competitive fortunes around for this calendar year when he fights Deiveson Figueiredo. The battle with Yadong and Figueiredo transpires on May 30th in what ends off a trifecta of shows for the promotion in a three day stretch.

The prior two days will see Road to UFC live events emanate from the same venue as the Saturday UFC FN effort with season five of Road to UFC kicking off on May 28th and May 29th.