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Petr Yan’s injury claims have drawn the ire of Merab Dvalishvili’s coach.
Yan is set to challenge Dvalishvili for the UFC Bantamweight Championship on Dec. 6. The title fight will headline UFC 323 in Las Vegas. This will be a rematch, as “The Machine” defeated “No Mercy” back in 2021.
Dvalishvili’s coach John Wood recently spoke to MMAFighting and he criticized Yan for making injury “excuses.”
“I’ll tell you this when Merab fought Petr Yan, we had some nasty injuries,” Wood said. “His hand was the size of a football when he went in there. He could barely get his hand in the glove. He had a complete broken hand in that fight. Going into it. Never hear a word about it. You’ll never hear a word about those things and he still did what he did.
“Everybody’s going to say what they need to say to feel better and that’s OK, that’s part of the game. The whole injury thing — saying you can beat another guy, no problem, I’m good with that. But I lost because of injury, it’s a little kind of cringey.”
Dvalishvili has been on a roll in 2025, and he’ll be chasing history at UFC 323. If he can defeat Yan in December, he’ll set a record for the most successful UFC title defenses in a single year.
Yan, a former UFC Bantamweight Champion, is hoping to reclaim the gold to cap off his 2025. Yan is riding a three-fight winning streak, defeating Marcus McGhee, former UFC Flyweight Champion Deiveson Figueiredo, and Song Yadong.
UFC 323 will also feature a UFC Flyweight Championship fight. Titleholder Alexandre Pantoja is set to put his gold at stake against Joshua Van.
Former two-division UFC champion Henry Cejudo will also be on the card, sharing the Octagon with Payton Talbott. Ex-UFC flyweight titleholder Brandon Moreno will also be in action, taking on Tatsuro Taira.
