Petr Yan earned revenge towards Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 323, lastly fixing the Georgian’s puzzle to regain the bantamweight title and halt the champion’s dominant run.
Two years after shedding a transparent determination to Dvalishvili, Yan produced an outstanding, well-rounded efficiency to outpoint the “Machine” and develop into a two-time undisputed champion.
Yan beforehand held the title from 2020 till 2021, then the interim belt from 2021 to 2022, with every reign ending in defeat by Aljamain Sterling. Not lengthy after his second loss to Sterling, Yan fought the Jamaican-American’s teammate Dvalishvili, who overcame the Russian as a part of a 14-fight win streak relationship again to 2018 – a run that took Dvalishvili to the title in 2024.
And after outpointing Umar Nurmagomedov and Cory Sandhagen in 2025, both facet of a submission of rival Sean O’Malley, Dvalishvili made historical past at UFC 323: turning into the primary UFC fighter to aim 4 title defences in a calendar yr.
He couldn’t make it 4 wins from 4 fights, although; Yan outstruck the Georgian and harm him to the physique a number of instances, whereas additionally displaying off nice wrestling defensively and offensively.
Yan finally earned a unanimous-decision win (49-46, 49-46, 48-47), probably organising the 32-year-old for a trilogy struggle with the Machine, 34.
The fundamental occasion adopted Alexandre Pantoja’s flyweight title defence towards Joshua Van, which resulted in abrupt and sudden trend after simply 26 seconds.
Pantoja, who had been equally dominant to Dvalishvili atop his division, threw a head kick at Van, who caught the strike and shoved the Brazilian to the canvas. In attempting to submit, Pantoja injured his left arm and was unable to proceed.
With that, Myanmar’s Van grew to become the UFC’s youngest-active champion at simply 24 years previous – and the second-youngest ever, behind solely Jon Jones.
UFC 323 leads to full
Petr Yan def. Merab Dvalishvili by way of unanimous determination (49-46, 49-46, 48-47)
Joshua Van def. Alexandre Pantoja by way of first-round TKO (damage, 0:26)
Tatsuro Taira def. Brandon Moreno by way of second-round TKO (floor and pound, 2:24)
Payton Talbott def. Henry Cejudo by way of unanimous determination (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Jan Blachowicz and Bogdan Guskov struggle to majority draw (29-28, 28-28, 28-28)
Manuel Torres def. Grant Dawson by way of first-round TKO (punches, 2:25)
Chris Duncan def. Terrance McKinney by way of first-round submission (Anaconda choke, 2:30)
Maycee Barber def. Karine Silva by way of unanimous determination (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Fares Ziam def. Nazim Sadykhov by way of second-round TKO (elbows, 5:00)
Brunno Ferreira def. Marvin Vettori by way of unanimous determination (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Jalin Turner def. Edson Barboza by way of first-round TKO (punches, 2:24)
Iwo Baraniewski def. Ibo Aslan by way of first-round KO (punches, 1:29)
Mansur Abdul-Malik def. Antonio Trocoli by way of first-round submission (guillotine choke, 1:09)
Mairon Santos def. Muhammad Naimov by way of third-round TKO (punches, 0:21)
