Getty Images
Output was the secret when Merab Dvalishvili and Petr Yan met in the primary occasion of UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas on Saturday evening. Dvalishvili overwhelmed Yan with wrestling and hanging to take a one-sided resolution over the previous UFC bantamweight champion.
Yan is notorious for his capability to slowly make reads earlier than assembling a successful recreation plan towards his opponents. Dvalishvili overloaded Yan with info, muting Yan’s sometimes terrifying boxing. Big moments have been few and much between within the combat, however Dvalishvili wobbled Yan with a leg kick in Round 2 and had Yan’s eye swollen fully shut by the point the combat wrapped. Yan was definitely well-conditioned, however Dvalishvili by no means drained.
Dvalishvili blew previous the file for takedowns tried in a single UFC combat, making an attempt an astounding 49 takedowns and securing 11. He is now tied with former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson with 74 takedowns landed within the UFC and is inside 10 takedowns of tying file holder Georges St-Pierre.
Dvalishvili (16-4) prolonged his successful streak to 9 and can seemingly be ranked No. 2 within the UFC’s bantamweight rankings subsequent week. There are solely two viable challengers between Dvalishvili and reigning champion Aljamain Sterling: scheduled challenger Henry Cejudo and No. 1 ranked contender Sean O’Malley. There is a predicament if Dvalishvili and Sterling proceed to excel. They are shut buddies and shut coaching companions that refuse to combat one another. Sterling and coach Ray Longo have beforehand acknowledged that Sterling would slightly transfer as much as featherweight than defend his title towards Dvalishvili.
“He is my brother and he’s the actual champion,” Dvalishvili stated of Sterling throughout his post-fight interview from The Theater at Virgin Hotels. “Whenever he decides to go up a weight class and combat the subsequent problem, afterwards I’ll combat for the title. Of course, I wish to be the champion. I proved it once more. I’m hungry!”
Former UFC bantamweight champion Yan finds himself freefalling. Yan (16-5) is on his first profession shedding streak in 21 skilled fights. What’s extra, Saturday marks his most decisive loss but. Yan was swept 50-45 by Dvalishvili on all three judges’ scorecards. He had solely ever been defeated by break up resolution or disqualification previous to Saturday
