Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili hold final face-off ahead of their trilogy bout

Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili came face to face one final time ahead of their third meeting, with the UFC releasing video of the staredown.

Yan, the reigning bantamweight champion, and Dvalishvili stood across from each other in the last pre-fight face-off for the trilogy bout, which caps a rivalry that has produced one win apiece.

The rivalry so far

The two have met twice, and both fights went the full five rounds. Dvalishvili won the first, a unanimous decision at a UFC Fight Night in March 2023. Yan took the rematch at UFC 323 in December 2025, also by unanimous decision, and in doing so became champion. That result was the most recent recorded fight for both men.

Yan, 33, is 20-5 and represents Russia, training out of the Archangel Michael Club. He fights from a switch stance and carries the sharper striking numbers of the pair: 5.12 significant strikes landed per minute at 54 percent accuracy. Before taking the belt from Dvalishvili, he had won decisions over Marcus McGhee in July 2025 and Deiveson Figueiredo in November 2024.

Dvalishvili, 35, is 21-5 and fights out of the Serra-Longo Fight Team for Georgia. He still sits at number one in the bantamweight rankings and number two in the pound-for-pound list. His game is built on relentless wrestling, averaging 6.4 takedowns per 15 minutes, against 1.58 for Yan. Before the loss to Yan he had defended the title against Cory Sandhagen in October 2025 and submitted Sean O'Malley in June 2025.

Why it matters

• The series is level at 1-1, with both fights decided on the scorecards after 25 minutes, so the trilogy will settle which man has the edge.
• The numbers point to a clear contrast in styles: Yan lands roughly 0.8 more significant strikes per minute and at a higher accuracy, while Dvalishvili's takedown rate is about four times Yan's.
• Dvalishvili is a year and a half older than Yan's 33, though he has the one-inch reach advantage on the tale of the tape reversed: Yan is an inch taller at five-foot-seven against five-foot-six, and the reach is 170 cm for Yan against 173 cm for Dvalishvili.
• Yan holds the title, so Dvalishvili is chasing it back after losing it in their last fight.