In the UFC 323 main event, Merab Dvalishvili put the UFC bantamweight championship on the line against Petr Yan. The fight didn’t go the way many imagined, as Yan thwarted ‘The Machine”s struggle. He was also able to get his opponent off his feet en route to a unanimous decision victory.
Sterling took his YouTube channel to share his belief that Dvalishvili won the fight by securing the first three rounds (via MMAfighting).
“I will say in real time that I thought we might have won the first three rounds, even though I knew they were close, I just thought we were out,” Sterling said. “Especially in the fourth round, I knew that Yan won that round, and when the fight was going on, round 5, we knew that [Yan] started to get the upper hand in that round so I thought it would be 3-2. But in the end it was 4-1 and 3-2 for Yan, which 3-2 I’m not super angry about. The 4-1 was something like: I always wonder what the hell I’m looking at when it’s 3-2? Don’t know.
“Close fight. Yan, he did great, can’t really say anything about it. I do think Merab didn’t look his best himself, but I want to make sure I give Yan respect and support for the things he did well as well. So it could have been a bit of both. A bit of an off night and also one guy was just on a different level that night.”
Dvalishvili’s 2025 remains one of the best years a UFC champion has ever had. Many believe “The Machine” is still a strong candidate to win “Fighter of the Year” thanks to his three successful title defenses against Umar Nurmagomedov, Sean O’Malley and Cory Sandhagen.
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