Merab Dvalishvili wants to run things back with Petr Yan for a third time.
After losing his bantamweight title Saturday, Dvalishvili called for an immediate trilogy bout against Yan. Dvalishvili (21-5 MMA, 14-3 UFC) lost a hard-fought unanimous decision to Yan (20-5 MMA, 12-4 UFC) in the main event of UFC 323 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The result evened out the score as Dvalishvili held a 2023 unanimous win over the Russian heading into UFC 323.
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“I tried to give all an entertaining fight, and I lost today,” Dvalishvili said during his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan. “It was a bad game today. Congratulations to him, but I want a rematch. I want to run it back.”
Dvalishvili was looking to make history by becoming the first fighter to defend a UFC title four times in a calendar year. Dvalishvili had successfully defended his belt against Umar Nurmagomedov in January, Sean O’Malley in June, and Cory Sandhagen in October.
When asked if he was affected by the wear and tear from the fights, weight cuts and training camps, Dvalishvili refrained from making any excuses. He’s just happy he put on an entertaining fight to close out the final UFC pay-per-view of 2025.
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“It’s always hard for me to make 135, and it was hard, of course, but I’m not making any excuse,” Dvalishvili said. “I just tried to put on an entertaining fight today. I tried to give a good fight to everybody. I’m glad that everyone was happy, so it doesn’t matter. He got me here in the UFC, and I’m a good company man. I’m happy because it’s a sport, and we try to make it entertaining. I don’t want to make a wrestling or boring (fight). Today I was trying to stand toe to toe with him, and today he was a better fighter.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC 323: Merab Dvalishvili calls for Petr Yan trilogy after tough loss
