LOS ANGELES – Petr Yan returns to face rival Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 333, and he doesn’t feel like he’s missed much since he’s been gone.
When Yan returns to the octagon against Dvalishvili on Oct. 24, it will have been 10 months since he became two-time bantamweight champion by defeating Dvalishvili. Following that fight, Yan underwent surgery to address a back injury in January, and while he’s been away there have been a few notable results in his division. Song Yadong scored an upset knockout over Umar Nurmagomedov, Mario Bautista moved past Cory Sandhagen in the rankings, and Sean O’Malley held onto his spot by stopping the streaking Aiemann Zahabi.
Yan told MMA Fighting’s José Youngs that none of the activity has particularly moved him.
“To be honest, I’ve been watching the division and nothing really impresses me because yeah, some people are winning, some people are losing, but let’s say Song and Umar, Song knocked out Umar, but I’ve beaten Song already,” Yan said via a Russian translator. “So there’s really not all that much that I’m impressed with. Same kind of people swirling around, so I’m happy to come out and fight everybody and beat everybody.”
At the moment, Yan is fully focused on his trilogy bout with Dvalishvili. The two first fought in March 2023, when Dvalishvili handed Yan a third straight loss, but Yan rebounded with three straight wins to set up a rematch at UFC 323. Yan capped off his career comeback by putting one a complete performance to dethrone Dvalishvili and prevent him from becoming the first UFC fighter ever to successfully defend a title four times in a calendar year.
Once he settles his business with Dvalishvili, he’s open to take on any challenger the UFC picks for him.
“The champ doesn’t choose his opponents,” Yan said. “We have matchmaking here for a reason. I think whoever they’ll put there, I’ll be ready to fight them.”
Yan and Dvalishvili’s previous encounters both went the distance, with both men claiming a convincing win in the series. This time around, Yan hopes to avoid the scorecards altogether.
“I think that this is going to be no less exciting of a fight,” Yan said. “I think it’s going to be just as exciting. And I think this time around, I want to prove myself and also everybody else that that wasn’t a fluke, that there was a reason for that. And hopefully this time it’s going to be a knockout.”
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