Merab Dvalishvili hasn’t won his belt back yet, but he’s already handed out the next invitation. Speaking to MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn ahead of his UFC 333 trilogy with bantamweight champion Petr Yan, Dvalishvili said “Song Yadong is next” if he leaves Abu Dhabi with the gold, adding: “I think Song Yadong has to get ready.”
That’s a bold thing to say a week out from the hardest fight on his calendar. Dvalishvili (21-2 MMA, 14-3 UFC) meets Yan (20-5 MMA, 12-4 UFC) in the Oct. 24 co-main event at Etihad Arena, underneath Alexander Volkanovski’s featherweight title defense against undefeated Movsar Evloev (20-0). The card streams on Paramount+.
Fifty minutes, two different stories
These two have already gone the full 25 minutes twice, and each man got a convincing win. The most recent one belonged to Yan, who took the title from Dvalishvili at UFC 323 last December. That loss ended a reign in which the Georgian had stacked three successful defenses in a single year, an absurd workload for a champion at 135.
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Dvalishvili framed the rubber match as a historic one when he spoke with MMA Junkie. “The first fight was one-sided, the second fight was one-sided, and now we all deserve to find out who’s really the best,” he said. He also admitted the familiarity cuts both ways, since the first two meetings came on different days with different mindsets, and he insisted he’s confident and comfortable he’ll get his hand raised.
There’s some edge to this one, too. Yan poked fun at Dvalishvili during the pre-fight press conference, and Dvalishvili didn’t hide how he feels about the champion away from the cage. He was blunt about Yan outside of fighting: “As a person, he’s just rude.”
He still made a point of praising Yan as a fighter and a father of two. His plan for settling the rest of it is simple: “I need to win against him and then he will be humbled.”
Staying busy on the mats
Dvalishvili hasn’t exactly been sitting on a couch since December. He’s been wrestling in Real American Freestyle, where he and Henry Cejudo are now 1-1. Dvalishvili took a decision in their first match in July, Cejudo evened it up in the rematch, and Bloody Elbow reports Cejudo wants a third go on the mats.
For now, though, the only trilogy that matters is the one in Abu Dhabi. Song gets a name-drop and a warning, which is more than most contenders get from a guy who isn’t holding the belt.
Quick take
I like the confidence, and Dvalishvili has earned the right to talk about the future after three defenses in a year. But calling your shot past Petr Yan is a gamble. Yan beat him clean in December, and he’ll spend fight week reminding everyone of that. If Dvalishvili wins on Oct. 24, Song should start packing. If he loses, that quote gets played back to him for months.
