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Merab Dvalishvili’s coach acknowledges ‘insane’ schedule may have backfired against Petr Yan

Story byAlan DawsonUncrownedMon, December 8, 2025 at 11:30 PM UTC·3 min readMerab Dvalishvili came unstuck during the last leg of a generational run that saw him compete in his fourth title fight of the year Saturday, atop the UFC 323 card at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The 34-year-old won the UFC bantamweight championship when he beat Sean O'Malley at UFC 306 in September 2024. He defended it months later by outpointing Umar Nurmagomedov in January, submitted O'Malley in their summer rematch, and beat Cory Sandhagen over five rounds in October. Had he stopped there, he’d already have put forward a compelling case for Fighter of the Year honors.

Merab Dvalishvili’s coach acknowledges ‘insane’ schedule may have backfired against Petr Yan

Credit: Yahoo

Key Highlights

  • Instead, Dvalishvili returned for a fourth title bout against Petr Yan and dropped a clear-cut loss, with the Russian appearing to control almost every minute of every round. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSpeaking to Uncrowned’s "The Ariel Helwani Show" on Monday, one of Dvalishvili’s coaches, John Wood, said that while “hindsight is 20-20,” Dvalishvili’s overall "insane" schedule, workload, and cumulative hours of preparation, training and sparring were undeniably “a lot.”That burden, he said, is part of what separates champions from contenders, though.
  • “When you’re chasing greatness and legendary things, these are the risks you have to take,” Wood said.“There’s a lot that goes into fighting four title fights in one year,” added the founder of Syndicate MMA.
  • “There’s bumps and bruises.
  • Everybody goes into a fight of this magnitude banged-up. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“More than anything, it’s just a lot of stress on the body."Prior to the Yan loss, Dvalishvili had stormed to the No.3 spot in Uncrowned’s pound-for-pound rankings because of the quality of the opponents he beat, the dominant nature of those performances and the distinctive style he brings to the Octagon.
  • He overwhelms elite fighters with a hyper-pressured, suffocating pace built on elite cardio.
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Sources

  1. Merab Dvalishvili’s coach acknowledges ‘insane’ schedule may have backfired against Petr Yan

This quick summary is automatically generated using AI based on reports from multiple news sources. The content has not been reviewed or verified by humans. For complete details, accuracy, and context, please refer to the original published articles.

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