All the pressure is on Petr Yan, Islam Makhachev and Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 267 – convincing wins must be the order of the night

On a card not blessed with distinctly even-looking contests, a trio of fighters are expected to prevail at UFC 267. Anything less than emphatic victories could prove this to be a no-win situation for them.

The lot of an MMA fighter entering a contest as a heavy favorite is not necessarily an enviable one. Cliched analysis would call out complacency as the greatest danger when the expectation based on apparent ability is victory, while the reality is more nuanced than that.

The manner of victory is also important in these situations – and Petr Yan, Islam Makhachev and Khamzat Chimaev face opponents whose motivation has been topped up without the slightest of need for words from their teams ahead of Saturday's action on Fight Island.

Confident backers will have to invest plenty to ensure a hefty return on the trio should they succeed in the octagon, such are their short odds on Saturday. That is despite the fact that Chimaev is returning to battle for the first time since a Covid ordeal that almost made him quit the sport, with a dismantling evidently anticipated by bookmakers of Li Jingliang, a fighter whose UFC career stretches more than six years longer than his own.

Chimaev has been full of menacing words ahead of his return after more than 13 months out. Hugely popular on social media, he is adept at soundbites and could well provide the kind of rapid conclusion he produced when he needed a full 17 seconds to deal with the established Gerald Meerschaert in his last fight.

Li, though, looked intent at the weigh-in and has never been knocked out. UFC president Dana White fast-tracked Chimaev to a US visa for his meeting with Meerschaert in an apparent manifestation of his mooted belief that the Chechen-born star could soon be a title holder, and the concussive prospect was keen to remind reporters that his previous quickfire wins have come against opponets with respectable records.

Li has the tantalizing prospect of becoming the first name to give Chimaev a significant contest, let alone beat him. If he does not come out swinging immediately, expect that to be a reflection of the tactical expertise he has accrued – and an extended scrap would increase concerns from Chimaev's vast fanbase that he has not recovered from the infection that made him publicly contemplate quitting.

Whether there is anything to be truly read into a weigh-in saga in which Chimaev struggled to hit the limit is debatable, but it is surely reason for caution against one of the more experienced names he could have faced in his comeback fight, and one who grinned his way through a press conference while pledging to let his fists do the talking.

Islam Makhachev is being touted as a successor to Khabib Nurmagomedov, which makes every fight he is part of look like a decisive moment for his future.

Dan Hooker, who he will fight in Abu Dhabi, has ample respect for Makhachev and does not look particularly fazed by the idea of facing a man touted as capable of following Nurmagomedov as lightweight champion.

Only a third successive submission would be likely to appease Makhachev critics, and Hooker has been riled by his statement that the New Zealander is mainly motivated by money, irrespective of the result.

Makhachev is unbeaten in more than six years. In the parlance of further cliches, Hooker has nothing to lose. It is both a position the Dagestani has had to familiarize himself with and a situation that the 30-year-old cannot afford to even subconsciously take lightly, with Hooker setting himself as party-thwarter.

Petr Yan remains in a faintly ridiculous state of limbo. The bantamweight was beating Aljamain Sterling when a rash knee saw him disqualified for an illegal shot in March, and the summit of the division has been in a strange state of inertia ever since, with Sterling requiring surgery and engaging in online spats with Yan while some claim that the American may never return to action.

Yan must suspect that he will never have the chance to avenge his nominal defeat to Sterling, so his meeting with Cory Sandhagen ostensibly represents an opportuniy to let off some steam more than seven months since that hugely controversial first defeat of his career.

All of which represents a significant incentive for Sandhagen, who is more than a 'live' opponent and is highly capable of giving Yan trouble with his timing and experience.

Sandhagen's steadfast posture when Yan moved his head towards him during their face-off could be construed as admirable evidence of his innate confidence ahead of their clash. Yan will be in a certain amount of exile should he suffer an upset, perhaps doomed to be defined by that strange setback that was the result of his misdemeanor against Sterling.

The predicament he faces encapsulates the aim of all three favored fighters: victory, as always, is paramount, but convincing performances make matters incalculably sweeter and of greater value when title reckonings are afoot.

By Ben Miller