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Bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili captured the 135-pound title by defeating Sean O’Malley in September 2024. He’s defended the belt three times this year and will put it on line for a fourth time in 2025 this weekend in the UFC 323 main event.
Dvalishvili faces former champion Petr Yan in a rematch at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday. The two first fought at UFC Fight Night 221 in March 2023. Dvalishvili defeated Yan that night in Las Vegas via unanimous decision. It was the last time Yan lost a fight. Former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker believes Dvalishvili will pick up a second win over the Russian.
“Obviously, he’s (Dvalishvili) a wrestler. His wrestling game is just so strong and he uses that to such devastating effect. He’s only getting better in my eyes,” Whittaker told FOX Sports Australia about the champion.
“Everyone can attest, his weakness is his standup, but over the last five fights, I want to say, his standup has gotten significantly better. And I think him having to stand with the caliber of striker he has been has just forced him to climb to a new level of like striking defensiveness, striking safety, but also offensively striking once he’s established the threat of the takedown,” continued Whittaker.
“It is so good to see. Bar a puncher’s chance, I just don’t see where a weakness of his is right now.”
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“There’s always a puncher’s chance in every fight,” Whittaker added. “It could happen. It could happen in any fight against anyone. Let’s take that tidbit out of the equation. I don’t see it going any different (than the first fight). I think he’s gotten defensively more sound with his striking. I think he’s much more comfortable striking and mixing in the takedowns… I just don’t see where the avenue for victory lies for Petr Yan.”
Merab Dvalishvili could make history at UFC 323
If Dvalishvili is successful on Saturday, he’ll be the only champion in UFC history to defend their title four times in a calendar year. When he defeated Cory Sandhagen last month he joined a list of seven other previous champions who have defended their championships three times in a year: Frank Shamrock, Tito Ortiz, Matt Hughes, Chuck Liddell, Demetrious Johnson, Kamaru Usman, and Alex Pereira.
“It is wild, and you can kind of see it because his style doesn’t lend itself to taking a lot of damage, so the ability to get back in there and get back to work. As well as like his fight style, and I think everyone can agree, it looks like he never stops,” Whittaker said. “Like, I’m pretty sure the next day he’s out running, out jogging, doing something crazy like that.”
