"Merab going to maul him" - Umar Nurmagomedov confident Merab Dvalishvili dominates Petr Yan in rematch

Umar Nurmagomedov recently shared his thoughts on the upcoming fight between Merab Dvalishvili and Petr Yan. He evaluated both fighters' skill sets and stated that if Yan fails to achieve a TKO, Dvalishvili will dominate the fight.

'The Machine' will be making his fourth UFC title defense fight appearance in a rematch against Yan at UFC 323 on Dec. 6. The two fighters previously met in March 2023, where Dvalishvili won by unanimous decision.

In a discussion on the WEIGHING IN podcast, Nurmagomedov previewed the upcoming UFC bantamweight championship fight, saying:

"From [the] last fight with Petr Yan, Merab [Dvalishvili] 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."

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Check out Umar Nurmagomedov's comments below (19:04):

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UFC analyst dismisses Petr Yan's chances against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 323

Merab Dvalishvili is currently on a 14-fight winning streak. Along with that, in his last three fights, he also successfully defended the UFC bantamweight championship.

Given Dvalishvili's form, UFC analyst Din Thomas has dismissed Petr Yan's chances of defeating him. In a recent discussion on The Bohnfire, Thomas said:

"[Merab Dvalishvili's] just a different level of human being. I don't know how he gets beat right now. I think Petr Yan is a great fighter, and he's got so many tools and so good at what he does. I don't see what he can do differently to stop Merab. Everybody has tried with that style. Stop the shot, stop the takedown. You just get punched in the face, then when you try to punch back, you get taken down anyway. I don't know what they do differently." [19:27 seconds into the video]

Yan is fresh off a unanimous decision victory over Marcus McGhee at UFC Abu Dhabi, extending his current win streak to three fights.

Edited by Nilaav Gogoi