Petr Yan Shrugs at Bantamweight Chaos Ahead of Dvalishvili Trilogy

Petr Yan spent 10 months on the shelf and came back with a message: the bantamweight division didn't miss a beat, and neither did he. The two-time champ meets Merab Dvalishvili in a trilogy bout at UFC 333 on Oct. 24, and he's told MMA Fighting's José Youngs that nothing that happened while he was rehabbing his back has moved the needle for him.

Yan had surgery in January to fix a back injury after taking the belt off Dvalishvili at UFC 323, capping a run of three straight wins that erased the memory of a 2023 defeat to the same man. While he was gone, the 135-pound picture shuffled: Song Yadong knocked out Umar Nurmagomedov, Mario Bautista climbed past Cory Sandhagen (18-7) in the rankings, and Sean O'Malley stopped Aiemann Zahabi (14-3) to hold his ground. Yan's response? He's already beaten Song, so the churn doesn't impress him.

It's a flex, but it's not an empty one. Yan pointed out that the same faces keep circulating near the top, and he's happy to fight and beat all of them. That's the confidence of a man who thinks the belt validates the position more than any highlight-reel result underneath it.

The Trilogy That Defines Both Men

The history here is dead even. The pair first met in March 2023, when Dvalishvili handed Yan a third consecutive loss during the roughest stretch of his career. Yan reset, strung together three wins, and then dethroned Dvalishvili in the rematch — a result that also denied Merab a shot at becoming the first UFC fighter to defend a title four times in a single calendar year. Both fights went the distance, and both men can point to a convincing performance.

That's exactly what Yan wants to change. He said he intends to prove the rematch win wasn't a fluke, and this time he's hunting a finish rather than trusting the judges. Given how competitive the series has been, forcing a stoppage would settle an argument that the scorecards never quite have.

As for what comes after, Yan's stance is refreshingly boring: champions don't pick opponents, matchmaking exists for a reason, and he'll take whoever the UFC lines up. First, though, there's the small matter of a third meeting with the one man who's already proven he can beat him — and the one man Yan has already proven he can beat back.