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Today, we are going to dive into that fight and see just how Dvalishvili pulled off this feat against the former champion. This is Aftermath and we have some really cool stuff to discuss.
Pace and Volume
Pace and volume will always be a big part of any Dvalishvili fight. He likes to keep his foot on the gas and dare his opponent to keep up. They usually can’t, and Yan was no exception. With conditioning being more and more of an important part of a fighter’s game, Dvalishvili is right at home against an opponent who takes his time to get started up. Unlike boxing, which has 12 rounds to download data, MMA only gives a slow starter like Yan a very short window to find his rhythm, or he will find himself behind. Against Dvalishvili, Yan fell behind quickly and never recovered.
In the UFC Fight Night 221 Beforemath, we identified straight punching, starting fast, and the knee tap as paths to victory for Dvalishvili and he utilized all three masterfully along with some other nuances. Dvalishvili’s torrid pace started at the first bell and didn’t stop for five rounds. We said in Beforemath that Yan needed to work the body and punish Dvalishvili to take over in the later rounds. Dvalishvili didn’t want to hear any of that and kept Yan on the back foot, not allowing him to get off any meaningful offense.
In addition to the good stuff that we knew Dvalishvili would do, he showed some great facets to his game that were not discussed. Yan is a switch hitter, liking to change from southpaw to orthodox and back often in a fight. This helps him get offense from both sides of the fight and overload his opponent’s senses to give him an advantage. Dvalishvili attacked the lead leg of Yan in orthodox, effectively took away that stance and made Yan favor southpaw. Once Yan’s leg was compromised, Dvalishvili stopped going to the legs and worked with Yan from southpaw. By doing this, Dvalishvili had much less to think about from Yan and could get his offense off and know where to shoot from.
Taking away Yan’s stance switching was probably the single most important factor to the fight for Dvalishvili. Aside from preventing Yan from switching, keeping him in one stance played into the grappling for Dvalishvili. As an orthodox fighter himself, Dvalishvili has his left hand and left foot forward. By kicking the left leg of Yan, Merab Dvalishvili put Yan in southpaw for the majority of the fight which put the two toe-to-toe. This means the lead leg is right there for Dvalishvili to pick up for the takedown. That is what allowed him to get to the legs so easily a lot of the time. It was a brilliant plan for a stance-switching opponent, which Dvalishvili pulled off perfectly.
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Dvalishvili also timed those stance switches quite well. Once he got Yan switching from orthodox to southpaw, and Dvalishvili had his opponent’s lead leg next to his, he would attack. In the first figure above, we see (1) Dvalishvili attacking the leg with another low kick that Yan does not check. It lands hard and clean and (2) Petr Yan will step back with the leg into southpaw. Notice how the two feet are close and Dvalishvili can get to it easier. (3) Dvalishvili goes for the knee tap and misses with the right hand as Yan dips, but the principle remains: Dvalishvili manipulated Yan on the feet to switch to a position that better suited his needs.
Another tool Dvalishvili used to slowed Yan down was with the double jab. Often, Yan likes to slip a jab and pivot around to get an angle for some offense. Dvalishvili, in addition to the low kicks and volume, often threw the double jab and had Yan leaning back and not able to pivot out and into an angle to strike.
Pairing up relentless take downs and the low kicks was lightning in a bottle for Dvalishvili, and he truly worked over Yan for five entire rounds. The cardio and pace put in by Dvalishvili is a modern trend of fighters that just work for five rounds to break their opponents in modern MMA, especially classes at welterweight and below. Think names like Colby Covington, Max Holloway, and Alexander Volkanovski. Petr Yan also fell into this category. Merab Dvalishvili just did it better and showed that he’s elite when it comes to cardio despite not having gone five rounds before Saturday night.
Grappling Did the Trick
We knew that grappling would be a big part of Dvalishvili’s game plan against Yan. With Aljamain Sterling as his teammate and the history between Sterling and Yan, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that Dvalishvili would work the legs of Yan. What we didn’t expect was for Dvalishvili to drive the type of pace Sterling did in the first round of the first fight with Yan but for five whole rounds. The absurdity of that and Dvalishvili’s relentless pursuit of the take down was the biggest thing to talk about from this fight, and deservingly so. The performance put on by Dvalishvili was second to none so far in 2023.
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In the open cage, Dvalishvili managed to punish Yan for throwing poorly set up body kicks as a means to prevent him from doing so as much. In the figure above, we see Dvalishvili having caught the body kick above and tucked it firmly under his right arm, putting Petr Yan on one leg with one point of balance. To get to the ground, or at least the trip, Dvalishvili steps across the rear foot with his lead leg and pulls Yan over the foot. Yan would pop right back up but its purpose was for Dvalishvili to get Yan to the ground and get to a body lock. He used several sweeps like this off of caught kicks, failed knee taps, and more to make Yan work all night.
Yan has struggled off the back foot for some time. Since the Sterling fight, Yan has struggled when fighters pushed the pace. We saw it in the Sterling rematch, we saw it with the Sean O’Malley fight. What we saw different here is that Dvalishvili attempted more take down attempts than anyone has ever done in a fight. Normally a failed takedown attempt saps the attacking fighter’s cardio, but for Dvalishvili that was not the case. Yan gassed defending the take downs and Dvalishvili kept on hunting, widening the cardio gap for the entire fight until he was able to run away with it in the fourth and fifth, where Yan is known to take over.
We talked about the knee tap in Beforemath and that was an integral part of Dvalishvili’s game and how it would play an important part against Yan. We won’t rehash that here, but it is worth speaking on. He did, in fact, use the knee tap to get to a couple take downs and attempt many more. But with Yan being quite the defensive grappler, it was never as simple as that. Once Yan was able to thwart the first attempt, he would often find Dvalishvili pressing him against the fence and looking to get a body lock or sweep the legs.
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What’s creative for Dvalishvili is exciting for fans and he treated us to a four-course meal of creativity. In pressing against the fence, Dvalishvili was forced to find creative ways to get Yan on the ground. (1) In the familiar position of having Petr Yan pressed against the fence, Dvalishvili has Yan leaning forward to counter the body lock to avoid a take down. Dvalishvili will (2) step around the right leg of Yan with his and bring his left across the back of Yan’s. With Yan leaning forward, Dvalishvili is able to sweep the right leg of Yan forward and (3) drop backwards to get Yan to the mat and score another takedown.
All in all, Merab Dvalishvili couldn’t have put on a better performance at UFC Las Vegas against Petr Yan. A former champion is something the UFC likes to see on the resume for a title shot and while he won’t fight Sterling, the statement made by Dvalishvili was something special. He beat Yan in a more dominant fashion than Aljamain Sterling and Sean O’Malley. Should Henry Cejudo beat Sterling at UFC 288, Dvalishvili may have jumped both of them for a shot at the belt with a performance like that.