Merab Dvalishvili previews upcoming Petr Yan rematch at UFC 323 while outlining latter's "biggest mistake" in their first fight

Merab Dvalishvili (right) talks Petr Yan (left) rematch. [Image courtesy: Getty Images]
Merab Dvalishvili (right) talks Petr Yan (left) rematch. [Image courtesy: Getty Images]

Merab Dvalishvili recently shared his thoughts on his upcoming Petr Yan rematch and outlined one mistake that the Russian made in their previous encounter.

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Dvalishvili and Yan are set to run it back for a second time at UFC 323 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. In their first fight in March 2023, Dvalishvili pushed Yan to his limits over five rounds and got his hand raised via unanimous decision.

If Dvalishvili successfully defends the bantamweight title against Yan in their rematch, he will become the first UFC champion ever to secure four title defenses in a single calendar year. It appears 'The Machine' is confident of making history.

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In an interview on the Believe You Me podcast with Michael Bisping and Paul Felder, Dvalishvili outlined Yan's biggest error in their first fight and said:

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"In the first fight, I was nervous and stressed. It was another pressure to fight against Petr Yan. Now, I'm more mature. I'm comfortable now, but I don't want too comfortable because I'm sure Petr Yan will fix the mistake he made in the first fight.
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"The biggest mistake Petr made was that he didn’t respect me in the first fight. He thought I wouldn’t be able to do anything against him. That was his biggest mistake. Whatever I was better at, I’m sure he’s going to fix it, and I have to be an even better version."
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Umar Nurmagomedov previews Merab Dvalishvili vs. Petr Yan 2

Umar Nurmagomedov recently shared his two cents on the upcoming Merab Dvalishvili vs. Petr Yan rematch. The bantamweight star believes Dvalishvili will dominate Yan again and backed the Georgian-born fighter to win. Dvalishvili notably defeated Nurmagomedov via unanimous decision at UFC 311 in January.

In an interview on the Weighing In podcast, Nurmagomedov explained why he's backing 'The Machine' to emerge victorious:

"From [the] last fight with Petr Yan, Merab became much better. And his last fight with Cory Sandhagen, [he showed] he's gonna wrestle all night, and it's a very big trouble for Petr Yan. He don't have good defense, but he have good arms. He can like do TKO, but if it's not going to be TKO, I think Merab [is] going to maul him." [19:05 of the podcast video]

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Edited by Nishant Zende.
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