Petr Yan thinks he already knows what’s coming. The UFC bantamweight champion told MMA Junkie on Tuesday, speaking through a Russian-language interpreter, that he expects Merab Dvalishvili to lean harder on his wrestling when the two meet for a third time at UFC 333 this weekend.
“I think this time around, he’s going to try to be more of a wrestler and try to wrestle,” Yan said.
That read makes sense once you look at how the series has gone. The rivalry sits at 1-1. Dvalishvili took the first fight in what BJPenn.com described as a fairly one-sided affair, and Yan answered in the rematch by taking the belt back. Dvalishvili has since talked publicly about the moment he knew he would lose that second fight, which tells you the result has stayed with him. Yan goes into Saturday as a slight favorite, though nobody who has watched Dvalishvili work would feel comfortable writing him off at those odds.
Yan framed the trilogy as unfinished business, a story he’d like to close out for good. He also made clear that the title comes first.
“All of it is important: the whole ending the trilogy, closing the chapter, turning the page on it,” he said. “At the moment, the most important goal is to defend our belt. It doesn’t matter who is in front of us. The point is to get this victory in the name of the belt.”
There’s a bigger conversation hanging over him too. Yan said people have started putting his name into the greatest-of-all-time discussion at bantamweight, and he was careful to note that he isn’t the one pushing that idea. Others are doing it for him, and he seems content to let them talk while he focuses on the fight in front of him. Listen to how he refers to the title, too. He calls it our belt, as if it belongs to his whole camp and not to him alone.
Asked about what comes after Saturday, he didn’t name anyone. He said plenty of fighters in the division deserve a shot, that he has already fought several of the men near the top, and that the choice belongs to the promotion.
“Whoever the company decides, I’m ready to fight,” Yan said.
The bantamweight trilogy shares the UFC 333 card with Alexander Volkanovski’s featherweight title defense against Movsar Evloev in the main event, so Saturday carries two belts and a lot of grappling pressure on both of them.
Predicting that Dvalishvili will wrestle more is about as safe as fight forecasts get. He has never been shy about grinding opponents down, and the first fight showed what happens when that pressure goes unanswered. The more telling part of Yan’s interview is how calm he sounds about it. A champion who expects the takedowns, says so out loud, and still talks only about the belt has either solved the problem in camp or is very good at hiding the worry. We find out which on Saturday.
