Merab Dvalishvili’s legendary run because the UFC bantamweight champions got here to an end on Saturday night.
‘The Machine’ tried to defend his 135lb strap for the fourth time in a calendar yr at UFC 323.
Merab Dvalishvili was expected to get the job done against an opponent he beat two years ago.
In the long run, Petr Yan beat him bloody in a career-best performance to take the bantamweight belt.
- LATEST NEWS: Islam Makhachev sends a message to Merab Dvalishvili after brutal end to his title reign at UFC 323
Merab Dvalishvili told to stop sparring on fight day
Merab Dvalishvili had a 25-minute spar hours before he beat Cory Sandhagen at UFC 320.
The 34-year-old looked sensational as he defended his bantamweight belt over five rounds in October.
Naturally, Dvalishvili did the identical thing ahead of his rematch with Petr Yan at UFC 323.
Footage of him within the cage with UFC fighter Mark Vologdin went viral ahead of his latest title defense.
Fans all said the identical thing after Dvalishvili’s 14-fight win streak was ended by Yan in Las Vegas.
“Well, that backfired horribly, didn’t it?” one fan said about Dvalishvili’s pre-fight sparring ritual. While one other added: “He got drained through the actual fight.”
“Insane but not very shiny. He looked slow tonight and now I do know why,” another person commented.
“@MerabDvalishvil, pls don’t do that anymore,” one fan begged.
“That’s absurd,” another person tweeted.
“Probably why he got his a– beat,” a sixth fan said.
Did Merab Dvalishvili’s pre-fight spar cost him at UFC 323?
‘The Machine’ ran out of gas during his rematch with Petr Yan on Saturday night.
Merab Dvalishvili’s next fight
Merab Dvalishvili has enough credit within the bank to get a direct rematch following UFC 323.
Nevertheless, Petr Yan says Dvalishvili must work his way back into bantamweight title contention.
“You saw the fight of Merab vs. Umar [Nurmagomedov],” Yan said post-fight at UFC 323.
“You saw the best way that fight went. So, who’s more dangerous?
“They will rematch, after which we are able to see what happens.
“Just understand the proven fact that for me to get the chance to fight for the belt again, UFC made me go three more fights until I used to be capable of get into the contender position again.”
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