petr yan He owned the UFC men’s bantamweight belt for much of 2020, but he never looked like a champion when he was dethroned on Saturday night. merab dvalishvili by unanimous decision in the action-packed UFC 323 main event in Las Vegas.
Two judges scored the fight 49–46, while the other scored it 48–47 for Yan.
Yan (20-5) was aggressive throughout, which was not the case in Dvalishvili’s previous fights, including his first meeting with Yan.
In 2023, Yan’s reign as champion had ended and Davalishvili had not debuted, with Davalishvili scoring a major decision victory over Yan thanks to a consistent attack. Dvalishvili made 49 takedown attempts that night, and although Yan defended 38 of them, he tired and remained on the defensive throughout the fight, and never posed an offensive threat.
The rematch was played very differently. Although Dvalishvili (21-5) entered the bout with 117 takedowns in his Octagon career, the most in UFC history, he did not add to his total in the first two rounds and went 0 of 13. Yan scored his first takedown of the fight midway through the second round.
Dvalishvili was 2 of 29 on takedown attempts. Yan was 5 from 9, but his accurate striking was the biggest factor. He landed 60% of his significant strikes, bloodied Dvalishvili’s face with sharp jabs and clearly hurt him with kicks to the body.
“I’m very, very happy. I worked very hard,” Yan said through a Russian interpreter. “I prepared very hard for this moment. This is my life.”
Although Dvalishvili is best known for his wrestling, he began Saturday’s fight by focusing on his striking, which was an interesting strategy against Yan, who is a skilled boxer. Davalishvili later said that his goal was to please the fans.
“I tried entertainment fighting today,” Dvalishvili said. “I tried to give everyone a good fight.”
Dvalishvili was successful in this, but Yan met him in the center of the cage and put into action his plan to return to the top of the 135 pound division as a two-time champion.
With the removal of Dvalishvili from the throne by Yan joshua van taking alexandre pantojaThe belt, the only one of the UFC’s 11 current champions (women’s flyweight) in Saturday’s co-main event Valentina Shevchenko) has made one successful title defense.
