Merab Dvalishvili Says Petr Yan Humbled Him Before UFC 333
Merab Dvalishvili said Petr Yan beat the sh*t out of him last time and left him humbled ahead of their bantamweight title trilogy at UFC 333.
The former champion made the admission at the Abu Dhabi Showdown press conference while seated across from the man who took his belt.
“Last time, yes he beat the sh*t out of me,” Dvalishvili said.
Yan heard it and pointed it out in real time.
“You see that? He got humbled,” Yan said.
Dvalishvili did not argue.
“Yes, he make me humble,” he said.
The trilogy is booked for Oct. 24 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Yan defends the UFC bantamweight title in the co-main event. Alexander Volkanovski meets Movsar Evloev for the featherweight belt in the main event.
Their first meeting was a mismatch on the cards. Dvalishvili won a 50-45 sweep on March 11, 2023, at UFC Fight Night.
The rematch went the other way. Yan bloodied Dvalishvili and took a unanimous decision at UFC 323 on Dec. 6, 2025, with scores of 49-46, 49-46 and 48-47.
That night ended Dvalishvili’s 14-fight win streak and made Yan a two-time champion. Yan is 20-5. Dvalishvili was listed at 20-5 on the UFC 333 graphic as a former champion.
Dvalishvili blamed his own approach more than Yan’s power.
“I think I was too much relaxed my last fight,” he said. “And no, that fight we all gonna find out we are champion.”
He said he is training “really hard and smart” and still expects to leave Abu Dhabi as champion.
“I think I’m gonna win, and we will have a new champion, but I have a big challenge for sure,” Dvalishvili said.
That last line drew a warning from the table. Someone told him not to talk about training smart.
Dvalishvili smiled and doubled down.
“No, trust me, I train smart,” he said. “I will show you, Peter.”
The exchange was the opposite of the usual stare-down theater. Yan sat with the belt in front of him. Dvalishvili sat in a suit and conceded the last beating before promising a different version of himself.
That matters because the first fight was a control job and the second was a beating. Yan’s boxing and body work took the air out of the pace that made Dvalishvili champion against Sean O’Malley, Umar Nurmagomedov and Cory Sandhagen.
A trilogy only settles the series if Dvalishvili can prove the December loss was the relaxed night he described. If Yan repeats that performance, the division stays with the champion who already solved the wrestling volume once.
UFC 333 is still five weeks out. The presser did not produce a new insult. It produced an admission.
Dvalishvili said Yan humbled him. Yan agreed. The third fight is where that sentence either holds or gets rewritten.