- Merab Dvalishvili hopes he had finally taught Petr Yan a lesson after he beat him at UFC Vegas 71
- “The Machine” has no problem facing his teammate Aljamain Sterling in a potential title fight
Merab Dvalishvili stunned Petr Yan in their UFC Vegas 71 showdown by coming in strong from start to finish, beating “No Mercy” via unanimous decision in the process. After his victory, “The Machine” said he hopes he did quite a good job to humble Yan.
It should serve as a lesson
Ahead of the fight, Yan and Dvalishvili had a heated face-off. Yan was clearly the aggressor and it only made “The Machine” hate him even more.
Speaking to reporters during his post-fight presser, Dvalishvili said he had no issues losing to anybody but Yan and he’s happy to have put a “cocky” opponent like that in his place.
“I wasn’t surprised because I [train] with a lot of UFC fighters and a lot of great fighters… I wasn’t surprised but I was just worried that I want to show up, I want to show up and I don’t want any accident [to] happen and I had extra pressure to represent my country, my people, my team and be working so hard and I want to just represent good… I don’t care [if I lose] any other fight, lost against whoever but lost against him [Yan], I don’t know, I should kill myself or something because he’s a great fighter like I said before but is a little bit cocky and I love fighters because they all humble they all good people and I don’t think this guy is [a] very good guy,” Merab began.
“I win. I’m a winner today it’s okay… maybe he’s a good guy you know I don’t know but… it’s okay you know, I think this loss will make him think about more he will respect other fighters and he was thinking before he is like… he’s the best and he is the number one and I am zero and it’s not like this we all human and nobody is perfect you know and you should not treat people like this you know you should respect everybody you know, he wasn’t respect[ing] me before, but now he will respect me and that’s all right… I have heart and that’s all… I want to be best and I don’t want to just win for myself you know I want to give good example [to] people you know I always talk about you know I come from nothing but now I’m on top and if I did everybody can do it too, just work hard,” he continued.
A friendly title fight sounds good
The win will surely put Dvalishvili in a better spot for title contention. Intriguingly, the reigning UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling is his friend and Serra-Longo fight team teammate. Nevertheless, “The Machine” said that doesn’t change anything between him and Aljo. In fact, he even thinks it’s a good problem to have should they end up fighting each other in the future.
“I fight anybody… I want to be busy and I will fight anybody I want to be busy and whoever UFC choice to me fight, I will fight. I don’t have no problem this is good problem to have like two best friends, two teammates,” Dvalishvili said.
Dvalishvili has now gone unbeaten in his nine consecutive trips to the Octagon. On the other hand, Yan suffered his third loss in a row.
Regardless of whoever wins between Sterling and Henry Cejudo at UFC 288, Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley will surely be the top candidates to become the next title challenger.
