Mario Bautista on the “perfect game plan” that helped Petr Yan win gold at UFC 323 | BJPenn.com

Mario Bautista recently talked about Petr Yan’s upset win to win 135-pound gold against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 323. In conversation with James Lynch from Fighting insidethe rising bantamweight prospect was talking about Yan’s incredibly dominant underdog win over the Georgian native, which saw the Russian level their series at one win apiece.

While the ranked UFC competitor discussed the changing of the guard at the top of his division, Bautista said:

“I had the same thoughts as everyone else, I thought Merab would go in there and handle him all five rounds like Merab usually does. But [Petr] Yan went there with a perfect game plan. Wrestled him up, defended the shots well, hurt Merab and even went to the body.

“I’ve said in a lot of these interviews that you have to start using Merab’s body. That’s exactly what Yan did and you can see it hurt Merab. So I thought it was a great fight. It was a good mix for the division. We’ll see if their rematch is on the way, but it was a very exciting fight.”

Mario Bautista and his next assignment inside the UFC octagon

Mario Bautista is in a big fight for his next appearance as he will headline a UFC Fight Night card in February. Bautista will face Vinicius Oliveira on February 7 in Las Vegas at the UFC Apex. This will mark the first time that both fighters will land a UFC card during their respective promotions.

Bautista vs. Oliveira will pit the number nine contender against the number twelve 135-pounder in the promotion. The 32-year-old was announced for this headlining attraction against Oliveira during a live UFC broadcast for the Brandon Royval vs. Manel Kape FN card after news of the fight was initially reported by Ag. Fight.

Mario Bautista is looking to bounce back from his UFC 321 loss to former title challenger Umar Nurmagomedov after previously riding an eight-fight winning streak that included victories over the legendary Jose Aldo and former Bellator MMA champion Patchy mixture. The Nevada native looks to derail Oliveira’s momentum here, with Bautista facing someone with an unblemished UFC ledger who is also on a six-fight winning streak.