At UFC Vegas 71, former champ and long-suffering bantamweight contender Petr Yan faced off against Georgian horse Merab Dvlishvili. What many suspected might be Yan’s return to form turned out to be his most decisive loss yet, as Merab bullied the spinner for 25 straight minutes.
Data download
“Data download” is the term coined to describe Petr Yan’s high-risk, high-reward strategy of starting slowly in order to read. Yan would keep his guard up and strike at a slower pace in order to make his opponents react and act. After the first five minutes, Yan often learned enough to start building a series of bad counters and leads.
The drawback to this maneuver is that to learn a series of patterns comfortably, Yan needs his opponents to fight at his own pace. Yan is difficult to put down, opponents will rarely open the first round quickly, and it is unlikely that they will get him out of the water early in the style of Garbrandt. Starting at a frantic pace also poses problems for cardio later in the fight (as Yan tends to be at his strongest). As a result, most fighters give up an opening round at Yan’s pace, doing just enough to win it, but struggle for it while Yan turns into gear.
speed and pressure
Unfortunately for Yan, Merab Dvishvili isn’t most fighters. His unlimited gas tank allows him to stay ahead of his opponent from the first to the last second, all the while maintaining confidence and skill. This was a nightmare for Peter Yan who was not able to shake the ever-rising Georgian. Unable to conduct the readings effectively, Yan was overwhelmed by the pure pace and pressure administered by Merab. When Yan found the right moment to plant himself and land a powerful shot, Merab stood still and continued to charge forward. Merab’s stunning game was built mainly on confidence, the inferior striker on paper but able to hold on to a great consensus purely by not wanting to cave in to Yan’s favored style.
Betrayal by defense
As a wrestler, Merab does his best work when he’s up close and personal in the ring or on the floor. However, Yan’s impressive defense and scrambling ability would have presented problems for Merab. This will not be secular fighting and prayer, however beneficial it may be to Marab. Instead, Merab would be required to exploit Yan’s tendencies and prepare to shoot ten times if it was to bring down Yan just once.
Yan’s tendency to engage in hand-to-hand fights is one that Sean O’Malley exploited to occupy hands and get big shots above Yan’s reach. Merab used a similar approach for the different endings, slamming the non-overlapping punches of Yan’s lead hand in order to draw them out. Once Yan’s hands are farther away from his body (and more importantly, his hips) Merab will have a much greater chance of succeeding in takedowns, with Yan having to travel farther to stuff them. It must be emphasized that while Merab would have adored large portions of control and damage on the ground, he was not as integral to teammate and current champion Aljamain Sterling. Merab’s takedowns were a way to overwhelm Yan, keeping him unable to build and giving Merab dominant positions in the ring where he could wear Yan on his knees.
Hit with the best
Hand-to-hand combat wasn’t the only lesson Merab learned from O’Malley. O’Malley broke through Yan’s high guard with jabs down the middle. While O’Malley relied on his range advantage to accomplish this, Merab was able to land punches, straits, and ups at will by virtue of constantly staying in Yan’s face. Once Yan’s eyes were swollen either from too many punches he took or from an unfortunate head-on collision (probably both), Yan was a man fighting on instinct. Yan threw reflexively, having to poke or hit hooks as Merab led the exchanges, rarely finding his mark. Since these exchanges were less loaded, Merab found success working elbows over the guard from close range without much fear of the clean counter returning.
With credit to Peter Yan
While this match was lackluster as far as the scorecards are concerned, Yan provided some insights that might have paid dividends if not for Merab’s resilience. Yan insisted on hurting Merab’s body with punches and kicks. Working on an opponent’s body is a great way to slow them down and affect their gas tank, yet Merab shows no signs of slowing down.
Yan also seemed to engage in wrestling exchanges on his own terms, trying to put Merab on his back, taking minutes of control and damage. While these have proven mostly unsuccessful or uneventful, the idea of a wrestler wrestling has seen some brilliance in Volkanovski vs Islam or Usman vs Edwards. Eliminating the one-sided nature of the area your opponent expects to control provides some mental interruption and forces them to work defensively, something they may not be well prepared for.
Concluding thoughts
It could not be denied that Peter Yan was now in a bad position. On a losing streak of 3 fights and seemingly well figured out by his fellow competitors, Yan must adapt and grow as a fighter to regain the title. With Chito Vera losing to Cory Sandhagen at UFC San Antonio, the match between these two teams will be interesting.
Perhaps in a more difficult place is Merab Dvalishvili. With his close friend Aljamain Sterling holding the bantamweight crown, he did whatever was needed to get a title shot but he understandably refused to take it. Until Sterling vacates or loses the title, Merab will have to hold on to his new No. 1 contender status as new powers rise through the division. Fighting is not a good game, and if Merab waits too long without taking action, he risks wasting his debut playing second fiddle, which is a tragedy for a fighter with Merab’s natural talents. If Sterling can defend against Henry Cejudo and stay top of the league, Cory Sandhagen’s match against Merab Dvalishvili will be a great match.