Petr Yan has no plans to hug it out with Merab Dvalishvili after the final horn at UFC 333. According to MMA Sucka, Yan said the personal hostility between the two bantamweights will stay intact regardless of how their trilogy fight goes. He also rejected the idea that this rivalry ends in the kind of mutual respect fighters usually find once the scorecards are read. Yan’s full remarks weren’t in the material available for this story, so the specifics come from MMA Sucka’s characterization.
Dvalishvili isn’t offering olive branches either. During their face off this week, he told Yan, in a clip shared by Championship Rounds on X: “Talk now, enjoy. Saturday I will show you. I will eat you.”
The stakes are as high as they get at 135. Yan (20-5) is the current UFC bantamweight champion, his second reign with the belt, and sits No. 1 in Knockout Daily’s bantamweight rankings and No. 4 on the UFC’s men’s pound-for-pound list. Dvalishvili (21-5) is the former champion, No. 2 in our rankings and No. 9 pound for pound. Both men last fought on Dec. 6, 2025, and both made weight at 135 pounds on Friday for the co-main event beneath Alexander Volkanovski vs. Movsar Evloev.
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The history between them is long. Yan was one of the former champions Dvalishvili beat during a 14-fight win streak, the fourth longest in UFC history, a run that also went through Jose Aldo, Henry Cejudo and Sean O’Malley. Yan is the one holding the belt now. Saturday settles the series.
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Stylistically, this is the matchup bantamweight nerds have wanted three times over. Yan earned the rank of Master of Sport in boxing before he ever stepped into a cage. Dvalishvili holds the UFC record for successful takedowns at 119 and ranks third all time in total strikes landed. That’s a crisp boxer against a man who chains wrestling attempts together until opponents run out of answers or gas, and every round will turn on whether Yan can stuff the first shot and punish the re-shot.
UFC 333 takes place Saturday, Oct. 24. If Yan’s comments hold, the only thing these two will exchange after the decision is another glare.
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