Merab Dvalishvili Wants To KO ‘Russian Bully’ Petr Yan, Says Win Would Be Better Than Winning Title

Dvalishvili details just how important his fight with Yan is.

Merab Yan
(via @merab.dvalishvili - Instagram)

Fighting Petr Yan isn’t just business for Merab Dvalishvili, it’s personal.

Unbeaten in his last 8 fights, ‘The Machine’ looks to keep raging on when he meets the former bantamweight champion in his first ever main event on March 11th. 

There is already quite a history between Dvalishvili and Yan, as they have crossed paths multiple times. Yan has fought Dvalishvili’s teammate (and current champ) Aljamain Sterling twice, where he’d come up short both times. While the dust has settled between Yan and Sterling, it doesn’t look that way between Dvalishvili and Yan ahead of their upcoming fight. 

Merab Wants To Humble ‘No Mercy’

Dvalishvili recently criticized how Yan has been taking his losses to Sterling and Sean O’Malley and plans to change his attitude for good.

“He’s a crazy guy,” Dvalishvili said of Yan, while speaking to The Schmo. “He was champion and he don’t know the rules. He’s just crazy. He still thinks he won all these fights. He gets beat up and he still thinks he [won] even though he [lost]. I’m gonna try to make him humble.”

Dvalishvili Is Looking For The Finish

With most of his fights ending by decision, Dvalishvili wants to change it up on March 11th by becoming the first man to stop Petr Yan inside the distance. 

“I just wanna finish him cause I don’t like the guy,” Dvalishvili explained. “I have all respect for my ex-opponents, but somehow I don’t like this guy much, that’s the only guy. I have some respect, he’s a good fighter, good family guy, but otherwise he’s stupid.

“He’s Russian bully and I wanna just finish him. It’s a fight. I’m gonna do my best and that’s all I’m looking for. Now I’m looking for to knock him out.”

‘Russia vs. Georgia’

While Dvalishvili isn’t fighting the ex-champ for gold, he does see this fight as more special than a title fight. Dvalishvili is fighting for more than himself, ‘The Machine’ is fighting for his country in this one. 

“I wanna just win this fight, that will be better than win title because this fight, it’s not only fight, this is personal fight for me, for my country. All my country supporting me. It’s not a secret, Russia, they’re not treating Georgia and Ukraine good. This is Russia vs. Georgia. This is sport, but this is big, big, big, more than fight for me. I’m fighting Russian guy Petr Yan, so it’s bigger, lots of responsibility for me.”

Published on March 7, 2023 at 12:17 pm
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