This past Saturday night in the main event of UFC 323, we saw a rematch for the bantamweight title. Merab Dvalishvili (21-5) was looking to pick up his second win over Petr Yan (20-5) while also defending his title for the fourth time in 2025.
These two fought back in 2023 and the pace and pressure from Dvalishvili was just too much. Honestly, I thought that we’d see a repeat performance because nobody has been able to hang with Dvalishvili. That said, Petr Yan had different plans on Saturday night.
Dvalishvili had a good opening round, but the biggest moment of the round happened when Yan visibly rocked Dvalishvili and then defended every takedown attempt. This would be a common theme for the remainder of the fight.
Dvalishvili couldn’t get Yan down and Yan was just touching him up on the feet. Multiple times, Yan hurt Dvalishvili badly to the body and it was actually Petr Yan that was able to takedown Dvalishvili multiple times. At UFC 323, Petr Yan put on the performance of his career and he regained the bantamweight title.
What’s next after UFC 323?
On paper, you immediately think about the trilogy fight being next between Yan and Dvalishvili. Dvalishvili won the first fight by a lopsided decision and while the second fight was competitive at times, it was pretty lopsided in the favor of Petr Yan.
I don’t know if he’d agree to it or not, but I think Dvalishvili should take a little time off. He won the title in September 2024 and then he fought four times this year. That’s an insane schedule and I think the UFC should encourage him to take a little break after this fight especially considering the damage he took.
As for the new champion, I think there’s really only two options for his next title defense. That would be the trilogy against Dvalishvili or a fight with Umar Nurmagomedov should Nurmagomedov win his fight in January.
The only thing that could throw a wrench into everything is if Sean O’Malley has an insane knockout win over Song Yadong at UFC 324. If that happens, especially considering the way the Paramount era is starting, you could see the promotion look to give O’Malley the title fight in a rematch with Yan.
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