Merab Dvalishvili pinpoints when he knew hed lose Petr Yan rematch

Merab Dvalishvili has been very honest about his UFC title loss to Petr Yan.

Dvalishvili admitted he was "humbled" when Yan dethroned him to claim the bantamweight title at UFC 323. He couldn't get Yan to the ground and was battered on the feet. With Dvalishvili (21-2 MMA, 14-3 UFC) winning the first fight in March 2023 by heavily outgrappling Yan (20-5 MMA, 12-4 UFC), the pair will throw down in a rubber match, which co-headlines UFC 333 on Oct. 24 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi (Paramount+).

"The Machine" revealed that he found out early things wouldn't go as planned.

"I think second round, I came back to the plan of I'm going to take him down, and I shot at him, and I really tried, and he defended again my takedowns," Dvalishvili told UFC on Paramount+. "In 10 seconds, all my energy came out and then I'm like, 'What now? I don't think I can take him down. I'm going to have to just fight.' Then I was just fighting. Plan was to do whatever I want.

"I said I can strike with him, and if I want, I can take him down. I was striking with him, he got me and then second round, I tried to take him down and I wasn't able to. I'm like, 'What should I do now?' Then I was just having fun, and I'm going to enjoy the fight. I realized in the second fight, I was not going to win this fight, and I was just going to enjoy the fight."

Dvalishvili was aiming to break the record for most title defenses in a year after defeating Umar Nurmagomedov, Sean O'Malley, and Cory Sandhagen.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Merab Dvalishvili pinpoints when he knew he'd lose Petr Yan rematch