Petr Yan Confident Ahead of UFC 333 Trilogy Bout with Merab Dvalishvili

Petr Yan believes he holds the advantage going into his trilogy fight with Merab Dvalishvili, set for this Saturday in Abu Dhabi as part of UFC 333's co-main event.

Yan and Dvalishvili have a history marked by contrasting results. Their first meeting in March 2023 ended with a dominant decision victory for Dvalishvili, but Yan entered that fight with a broken hand. Last year, Yan returned healthy and claimed a decisive decision win over Dvalishvili, capturing the UFC bantamweight title for the second time.

There’s some debate about whether Dvalishvili's intense schedule during his title reign affected his performance. He fought four times in 2025, concluding with his loss to Yan. Since then, Yan revealed on The Ariel Helwani Show that he wished to compete sooner but was sidelined by back surgery.

"It doesn’t annoy me at all," Yan said through an interpreter. "If he wants to use it as an excuse or his fans want to use it as an excuse, soon we’re going to find out. We have a date, less than a week, so we’re going to find out who is a better man."

Leading up to the fight, Dvalishvili stirred the pot by calling Yan rude and saying he needs to be humbled. Yan responded by insisting he was just honest about their past encounter, arguing that Dvalishvili was the one who ended up humbled.

"I wasn’t rude. I was being real, and when I was asked a question and he started to make things up, I just told him to shut up. That’s about it. I wasn’t rude at all," Yan explained. "Most important is he himself knows that I humbled him."

Yan's loss to Dvalishvili in 2023 came amid a tough three-fight losing streak, but he bounced back strongly with three commanding wins before earning this rematch.

The issue of Yan’s broken hand has been central in discussions about the rivalry. He noted that the injury heavily influenced their first bout, while adjustments made for the second fight led to a different outcome.

"The biggest difference between fights was that I could punch him, and he himself, in his interviews, admitted he was broken in the second round. So, you can state it for a fact that I made him humble," Yan said.

Both fighters know each other's style well now after two clashes. Yan feels confident he can dictate the pace and direction of the upcoming fight.

"We have a lot of information about each other. We know what to expect from each other after fighting two times. I know what to expect from him this time, and I know how to counter it and believe I can make him fight the way I want: control where the fight goes and defeat him again."

This trilogy fight will mark the first bout of the year for both Yan and Dvalishvili.