Merab Dvalishvili is willing to fight again next month, with one exception, according to a Bloody Elbow report shared on X on Sunday morning. That came less than a day after he dropped a unanimous decision to Petr Yan in their bantamweight title trilogy at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi. The post Bloody Elbow shared didn’t lay out what the exception is, so I’m not going to guess.
The guy who lost didn’t spend his night yelling about the judges. “He beat me today; he’s the better man,” Dvalishvili said after the fight, per Yahoo Sports. That’s a pretty clean concession from a former champion on the wrong end of a decision a lot of people are still arguing about.
The numbers: all three judges had it 48-47 for Yan, who defended his belt in Saturday’s co-main event. The win puts Yan up 2-1 in the series, and the two have now logged 75 minutes in the Octagon together across three fights. Dvalishvili started fast. Yan came on in the later rounds, leaning on his striking and his defensive wrestling to take the steam out of Dvalishvili’s pressure.
View post on X
Fighters on X split on it. UFC veteran Jessica Penne was in Dvalishvili’s corner, writing, “I’m not a judge. But I had Merab winning. Regardless it was an incredible fight!” Former flyweight contender Muhammad Mokaev asked his followers, “What’s your thoughts on decision?” Derek Brunson posted something similar: “What yall think about that decision? Yan v Merab?” Neither one actually said the judges blew it.
On the other side, bantamweight contender Aiemann Zahabi felt Yan locked it up in the fifth round. Heavyweight Shamil Gaziev called it strategy: “Perfect plan by @PetrYanUFC. Gave 2 rounds to take 3,” he wrote. Adrian Yanez, who fights in the same division, just wanted more of it: “Such a great trilogy. Wouldn’t mind seeing the best of 7.”
Sportskeeda framed Dvalishvili’s comments as including a “major admission,” and Bloody Elbow has him open to a quick turnaround. Beyond that, nothing has been announced about who or when.
My take: three judges landing on the identical 48-47 tells you each of them saw a 3-2 fight with no 10-8s, which is about as far from a robbery as a close fight gets. Gaziev’s math is basically the scorecard math. A slow start that gives away two rounds only works if you win the other three cleanly, and the people paid to watch said Yan did. As for the return, I’ll spend all day griping about guys coming off two-year layoffs at -300. A man who just went 25 hard minutes and wants back in a month is the opposite problem, and I’d much rather have it. He’s still 1-2 against the champ, though, so the fourth fight isn’t next. The line on whoever gets him first is the line I want to see.
