Merab Dvalishvili has a short message for Petr Yan, and he delivered it twice this week.
“I’m really hungry now this time,” Dvalishvili said in a quote the UFC News account posted on X on Thursday. The post said he wants to prove a point in the trilogy and believes he has everything in place to regain the bantamweight title. Earlier that day, during their faceoff, he was blunter. “Talk now, enjoy. Saturday I will show you. I will eat you,” Dvalishvili told Yan, according to a clip shared by Championship Rounds on X.
That Saturday is October 24, when the two meet at UFC 333, the card headlined by Alexander Volkanovski vs. Movsar Evloev.
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Where they stand
Dvalishvili (21-5) is the former UFC bantamweight champion and sits No. 2 in the division in Knockout Daily’s rankings. He’s also the first Georgian-born champion in UFC history. His resume is built on volume wrestling: his 119 successful takedowns are the most in UFC history, and he ranks third all-time in total strikes landed. After opening his UFC run with losses to Frankie Saenz and Ricky Simón, he ripped off 14 straight wins, the fourth-longest streak in company history, beating José Aldo, Henry Cejudo, Sean O’Malley and Yan himself along the way. The UFC had him at No. 9 pound-for-pound as of September 22.
Yan (20-5) is the current and two-time UFC bantamweight champion, No. 1 in Knockout Daily’s rankings and No. 4 on the UFC pound-for-pound list as of the same date. He’s a Master of Sport in boxing, which tells you what the fight is about. Dvalishvili wants it messy and continuous. Yan wants clean exchanges at range and the space to land them. Both men last competed on December 6, 2025.
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Yan’s camp has been less fiery and more family. He confirmed his son will corner him, saying via the UFC: “He wanted to do it. Who am I to say no? The kid is growing up and plays sports. I think it’ll be good energy for him.”
What’s next
A Dvalishvili win makes him a two-time champion and settles the series in his favor. A Yan win probably closes the book on this rivalry for a long while, and the division’s contenders get to stop waiting. My pick is Dvalishvili, because nobody at 135 pounds has shown they can stay off the fence with him for 25 minutes. Yan is the one guy who might.
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