Merab Dvalishvili‘s coach John Wood has given his thoughts on his student’s UFC 323 defeat to Petr Yan.
Last Saturday night, Merab Dvalishvili’s incredible run as UFC bantamweight champion came to an end. He was beaten comprehensively by Petr Yan, who became a two-time holder of the belt at 135 pounds. Now, ‘The Machine’ will head back to the drawing board and attempt to figure out what exactly went wrong as he goes in pursuit of a trilogy fight.
Many believe that Merab Dvalishvili made a mistake by taking on a fourth assignment this year as opposed to ending 2025 with a solid 3-0 record. Alas, he dared to be great, and he fell short against a version of Petr Yan that we haven’t seen before.
In a recent interview, Merab Dvalishvili’s coach John Wood gave his thoughts on how it all played out and what the future holds for Merab.
John Wood’s view on Merab Dvalishvili’s UFC 323 defeat
“No, no, I think that we’ve learned some lessons on this one for sure,” Wood told Submission Radio. “I think that there’s a lot to be learned from this. If you dare to be great, sometimes you’re going to come up short. That’s what that man has done. I do believe he is great, and I do believe he’ll continue to be great, and I do believe that he will get that title back. Sometimes you take risks, and if you were to ask him if he would do it again, I believe he would.
“He is the path of most resistance guy. He’s the guy that would go through a wall. He’ll run headfirst through a brick wall to get what he wants, to prove a point. I think that not a lot needs to be adjusted or done differently. How we go about it in the process, it’s been a long year, and there were a lot of things that went into this. It was Petr’s night, and it was a little off night for us, and that’s that. We’ll go back, and we’ll fix it.”
Quotes via MMA Junkie