Petr Yan defends the UFC bantamweight title against Merab Dvalishvili this Saturday at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi, the third fight between two men who each own a clear win over the other. The trilogy is the co-main event beneath Alexander Volkanovski’s featherweight title defense against the undefeated Movsar Evloev.
The series has swung hard both ways. Dvalishvili beat Yan over three rounds in 2023, and that loss was Yan’s third in a row. The other two came by split decision, against Aljamain Sterling in their rematch and against Sean O’Malley. For a while it looked like the Dvalishvili fight had ended Yan’s run as a title contender. Then this past December, Yan took the belt from Dvalishvili over five rounds, a performance MMA Fighting’s Countdown coverage called a virtuoso one. The best version of Yan showed up for 25 minutes against a guy whose whole identity is breaking people over 25 minutes.
Dvalishvili’s year since then has included a detour into RAF wrestling. Henry Cejudo pinned him in 36 seconds at RAF 12 in August to win the promotion’s lightweight crossover title, according to MMA Fighting. Dvalishvili still landed at No. 5 in RAF’s inaugural crossover pound-for-pound rankings, released Monday, behind Colby Covington, Cejudo, Arman Tsarukyan and Khamzat Chimaev. Nobody should read too much into a pin under a different ruleset. It’s still not the kind of result you want sitting on your résumé the month you try to win your belt back.
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The all-time question hangs over this one too. In MMA Fighting’s UFC 333 roundtable, Alexander K. Lee said the series winner is the best bantamweight ever, period. Mike Heck called it close but stuck with Dominick Cruz. Jed Meshew was blunt. He pointed to Cruz’s seven title wins and said a Yan win would only get Yan to three, while Merab would reach five, which Meshew considers close enough to start the conversation. Meshew also floated Payton Talbott as a possible future opponent for the winner.
Yan has looked loose during fight week. Dovy posted a clip on X of a kid at a fan meet and greet challenging the champion, and Yan’s answer was, “you want?” Another clip Dovy shared shows Yan firing a punch right behind a spinning backfist, which is a nice little detail. Most fighters land the spinning shot and admire it. Yan treats it like the first half of a combination.
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Quick take: I’m picking Yan, and it isn’t especially close in my head. The first fight was Merab’s pace drowning a guy on a three-fight skid. The second fight was Yan proving he could survive that pace for five rounds and keep landing the better shots the whole way. Dvalishvili’s game is volume, takedown attempts and refusing to let you breathe, and it works by forcing opponents to stop adjusting. Yan already adjusted. Unless Merab brings something new besides more cardio, I’ve got Yan by decision Saturday, October 24, and the GOAT arguments can resume Sunday morning.
