Petr Yan might have finally put Merab Dvalishvili behind him after defending his UFC men's bantamweight title with a gritty comeback to complete their trilogy, scoring a unanimous decision victory in the co-main event of UFC 333 on Saturday in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Yan (21-5) started slowly, as he is wont to do, surrendering five takedowns through the first two rounds. He successfully defended 14 other attempts during those opening 10 minutes, and while that kept him standing, he was playing defense the whole way, significantly limiting his own offensive output.
But from that point on, Yan became more aggressive, hurting Dvalishvili with a body kick in Round 3, and forcing him to compete in stand-up -- Yan's forte -- for much of the remaining 15 minutes. Yan fended off all 39 of Dvalishvili's takedown tries in those final three rounds, and Yan used his superior boxing to seize advantage of the stand-up exchanges.
The pro-Yan crowd roared every time the Russian threw a punch, much less landed one. The momentum was on his side, and he rode it to a trio of 48-47 scorecards.
"I usually take a long time to warm up in a fight," Yan said through a Russian interpreter, "but in this way, I knew that he was going to gas forward and eventually he was going to gas out."
Dvalishvili (21-6) dominated the first meeting with Yan in 2023, landing 11 takedowns on 49 attempts, a pace that kept Yan on the defensive for five exhausting rounds. In the rematch last December, Yan fended off all but two of Dvalishvili's takedown tries, keeping the fight standing, where his boxing skills won out.
