In one of his most impressive performances to date, Petr Yan reclaimed his spot as UFC Bantamweight Champion this weekend with a scorecard victory over Merab Dvalishvili.
Yan’s always-explosive striking skills, along with his ability to shut down the wrestling base of Dvalishvili, earned him a clean unanimous decision win on Saturday night (49-46, 49-47 & 48-47). The result, ending what had been a highly successful year for Dvalishvili up until this point, headlined UFC 323 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night.
Yan silenced Dvalishvili’s wrestling abilities early on, taking away what had become a significant part of the Georgian fighter’s gameplan against many of the division’s best over the past few years.
Per official UFC stats, Yan shut down more than two-dozen takedown attempts from Dvalishvili through 25 minutes. In fact, it was Yan who had scored more takedowns by the time the fight had wrapped up.
Damage on the feet was Yan’s main way to snag rounds, stunning Dvalishvili with clean and thudding blows throughout the fight.
A sharp jab and a hard right hand marked up the face of Dvalishvili, causing him to start sporting cuts and bruises quite early into the fight. Yan’s most effective striking ended up being shots to the body, stunning Dvalishvili with kicks and punches to the mid-section numerous times during the bout.
While Dvalishvili had an incredibly high output during striking exchanges, at times out-landing Yan, there was a noticeable difference in the power of the blows which landed throughout the fight. Dvalishvili was in discomfort many times during the fight after absorbing a strike. Yan, on the other hand, was never put in such a position.
Even before the scorecards were announced on Saturday, it was clear that Yan was going to get the decision nod and start his second run as the top 135-pound fighter in the world.
“I’m very happy to stand here with the championship belt,” Yan said through an interpreter in his post-fight interview. “Thank you so much to all the fans. I worked so hard for this moment. This is my life.”
Yan was listed as a significant underdog prior to the fight, with some sportsbooks putting him at figures as steep as +300. Having previously lost in a one-sided 2023 meeting to Dvalishvili, and Dvalishvili entering after a long streak of wins against some of the biggest names at bantamweight over the past few years, many counted out Yan as being capable of earning the win.
2025 had been the year of Dvalishvili prior to Saturday evening, as he previously overcame Umar Nurmagomedov, Sean O’Malley, and Cory Sandhagen since just January. The official UFC broadcast noted that he became the first-ever fighter to put their title on the line four times within a calendar year on Saturday.
Dvalishvili’s streak of 14 consecutive wins, the fourth-longest run of victories in UFC history, came to an end due to his loss to Yan on Saturday.
Yan now joins an exclusive club of just three fighters who have captured the UFC Bantamweight Championship twice in their career, now listed alongside TJ Dillashaw and Dominick Cruz. His first reign with the belt took place back in 2020, beginning after he scored a fifth-round stoppage to beat all-time great Jose Aldo for the vacant title.
In the most controversial result of his career, Yan lost the title a year later due to an illegal knee disqualification against Aljamain Sterling. The Russian fighter would later gain an interim title and meet Sterling in a 2022 rematch, but lose via split decision.
Three years after he lost his bantamweight title inside the UFC APEX, one of the more perplexing results of a high-level MMA fight in recent years, Yan has proven that his days as the division’s top name are far from over.
