UFC bantamweight contender Mario Bautista has praised division champion Petr Yan for his victory over Merab Dvalishvili.
In the main event of UFC 323 earlier this month, Petr Yan shocked many by defeating Merab Dvalishvili to once again become the UFC bantamweight champion. He came up with a great plan and he executed it to perfection, with what ended up being a pretty dominant victory – especially when you look at how Merab’s face looked after the fight.
Now, Petr Yan will likely face Dvalishvili in a trilogy fight, or he could face Umar Nurmagomedov or Sean O’Malley if both win their upcoming fights. Umar’s final victory came over Mario Bautista, who gave a valiant effort but ultimately could not overcome Nurmagomedov’s wrestling.
In a recent interview, Bautista gave his thoughts on what Petr Yan could achieve.
Mario Bautista’s take on Petr Yan’s victory
“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.”
Quotes via BJPENN.com
Yan has a lot of options for his next fight, but regardless, this is one of the best title performances in recent memory, and even that might be an understatement.
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