How Good Is Petr Yan at Jiu Jitsu

What Belt Is Petr Yan in Jiu Jitsu

Petr Yan is a BJJ blue belt. That is unusual among current UFC champions, where brown and black belts are the norm, but his martial arts identity was never built around Brazilian jiu jitsu.

Yan grew up in Dudinka in Arctic Siberia and built his career on boxing and Combat Sambo before moving into MMA. He is a Russian Master of Sport in Boxing and has the Combat Sambo credentials that Russian fighters typically bring into the cage.

Yan’s Grappling Coach and Camp

Yan runs most of his fight camps out of Tiger Muay Thai in Phuket. The camp is stacked with world class strikers and grapplers but does not have a dedicated BJJ program in the traditional sense. His grappling training is MMA specific.

His Combat Sambo base gives him throws, leg attacks and chain wrestling from the clinch. That is the grappling system he reaches for when a fight gets grounded, not Brazilian jiu jitsu.

How Yan’s Grappling Shows Up in the Cage

Yan’s in cage grappling is mostly defensive and mostly built around takedown defence. Against Merab Dvalishvili, a top tier wrestler, he lost the grappling battle and dropped the bantamweight title. Against Umar Nurmagomedov he again had to contend with elite wrestling and managed enough scrambles to stay competitive on the feet.

In his December 2025 title win over Merab at UFC 323 he shut down the grappling game completely and won with boxing and footwork, which tells you his grappling ceiling is high enough to stop world class wrestlers when he needs it to.

Should Yan Be Worried About His BJJ

At bantamweight the grappling threats are primarily wrestlers and Sambo fighters. Pure BJJ specialists are rare in the division. So Yan’s blue belt level jiu jitsu has been enough to keep him champion for stretches even without a dedicated BJJ game.

If he ever faced a Charles Oliveira style submission hunter at 135 pounds his grappling would be the first thing opponents attacked. The division just does not produce many of those.

The Verdict on Petr Yan’s Jiu Jitsu

Blue belt on paper, Combat Sambo practitioner in practice. Yan’s grappling gets the job done against wrestling first opponents but is the part of his game most likely to be tested if he fights a true jiu jitsu player.

Our rating, 6 out of 10. Lowest grappling rating of a current champion, offset by a Combat Sambo base and elite takedown defence.

Part of our ongoing series ranking the BJJ of every notable UFC fighter and BJJ practicing celebrity. See the full Fighter BJJ Profiles index.