Merab Dvalishvili made the bantamweight title limit of 135 pounds Friday morning in Abu Dhabi. Five hours later, he climbed on his own scale and it read 154.
The Georgian posted the video to his social media accounts after the UFC 333 weigh-ins at Hilton Abu Dhabi Yas Island, and UFC on TNT Sports reshared it on X. He narrated the whole thing like a guy unboxing a new phone.
“It’s been only five hours since I made weight and I’m back already,” Dvalishvili said in the clip. He explained he’d been drinking water, stepped on, and read the number out loud. “In only five hours I gained back 19 pounds. That’s how we do. Let’s go!”
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Then he announced the next phase of the operation, which was food. “Now I’m gonna start eating,” he said, adding, “tomorrow you guys already know who I’m gonna eat.”
That line is a callback to the UFC 333 press conference, where Dvalishvili got face to face with Petr Yan and told him, “Talk now, enjoy. Saturday I will show you. I will eat you.” Hard to accuse a man of manufactured beef when he keeps coming back to the same menu.
The Trilogy Math
This is the rubber match, and the first two fights went in opposite directions. Dvalishvili beat Yan in 2023 and didn’t drop a single round, taking 50-45 on all three judges’ scorecards. Yan flipped it at the end of 2025 at UFC 323, lifting the bantamweight belt off Dvalishvili with scores of 49-46, 49-46 and 48-47.
So Dvalishvili walks into Saturday as the challenger chasing back the title he used to own, and he’s had 10 months to stew on it. MMA Mania reported he looked rejuvenated and healthy at the weigh-ins after the long layoff, hitting championship weight with apparent ease and plenty of energy.
UFC 333 goes down Saturday, Oct. 24, in Abu Dhabi. Because of the time difference, the main card starts at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT, streaming on TNT Sports on HBO Max. Set an alarm, because nobody wants to find out who won a bantamweight trilogy from a push notification at brunch.
Quick Take
I love this. Most fighters treat rehydration like a state secret, and Merab is out here filming his scale like it’s a reality show confessional. The 19 pounds matters less as a size edge than as a tell. A guy who looks drained and miserable on weigh-in day doesn’t hop on a bathroom scale five hours later yelling “Let’s go!” into his phone. The bigger question is the one Yan answered last December, which is whether Merab’s pace can break a man who’s already figured out how to survive it. Yan won the last one by taking the cardio war away from him, and no amount of water fixes that. Saturday at 2 p.m. ET we find out if the food fest was a celebration or a last meal.
