The feud between the 2 men that headlined UFC 323 isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Merab Dvalishvili was beaten by Petr Yan in a improbable bantamweight title fight on the T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night.
The Russian challenger was in a position to surprise quite a lot of people along with his performance after coming into the matchup as a large underdog.
With each men now having a win over one one another, Dvalishvili has already said that Yan will probably be his next opponent once he’s able to make his return.
Don’t expect any of the bad blood between them to be settled now that they’ve shared the Octagon twice.
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Are you surprised by how the UFC 323 predominant event between Merab Dvalishvili and Petr Yan played out?
The Russian challenger placed on a masterclass to dethrone ‘The Machine’ in Las Vegas.
Merab Dvalishvili calls out Petr Yan for ‘lying’ about his recent comments
Petr Yan didn’t consider that Merab Dvalishvili deserved an fast rematch after losing his title when attempting to provide a fourth successful title defense in 2025.
There was intensity between them before each of their prior meetings contained in the Octagon, though there have been some signs that this was now settled.
The 2 men seemingly exchanged comments on social media, with the normally stoic Yan appearing to wish his rival one of the best along with his time away from the game.
Was Merab Dvalishvili’s reign in 2025 impressive enough to warrant an instantaneous title shot?
‘The Machine’ put the belt on the road a record 4 times in 2025.
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Nonetheless, in a video posted by Sport24.ru, Yan disputed this, claiming that it was his manager that replied to Dvalishvili, adding that they won’t be friends in the longer term.
The video quickly caught the eye of the person that he dethroned on December 6 in Las Vegas.
Dvalishvili called Yan out for his comments, telling him that it’s “game on” ahead of their upcoming trilogy, together with posting one other message where he criticized his selection of friends.
“Fans and friends – take heed to this guy now, Petr Yan,” Dvalishvili wrote on X. “Never consider a word he says. He just admitted that he doesn’t write his own social media. He said he never said ‘see you friend’ or said ‘speedy recovery friend’ yesterday on Twitter [X]. ‘Wasn’t him’. How quickly he modified his mind. I believed he was humbled once I beat him in 2023 and I used to be friendly toward him. Forget it now liar. Game on.”
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Joe Rogan called Petr Yan’s performance a ‘master class’
It wasn’t just that Petr Yan was in a position to avenge his loss to Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 323 that was so surprising.
After being dominated of their first meeting, the Russian was in a position to produce arguably his most impressive performance thus far to win the bantamweight title for a second time.
Joe Rogan praised Yan’s display as a “master class” when recently reflecting on the fights.
“While you’re gonna fight a man like Merab, that’s the master class,” The UFC commentator said on The JRE MMA Show. “He placed on a clinic… Bro, his training camp should have been hell. It needed to be hell.”
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