Aljamain Sterling had a different view of teammate Merab Dvalishvili’s UFC 323 title fight loss to Petr Yan.
As always, Sterling was in the corner for his close friend’s fourth title defense of 2025, which
capped off Saturday’s event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Unfortunately for Team Dvalishvili, Yan put on a virtuoso performance over 25 minutes to avenge a past loss and become a two-time bantamweight champion.
Two judges scored the fight 49-46 for Yan, with the other logging a more narrow 48-47 margin, and in the heat of battle, Sterling actually thought Dvalishvili was on his way to earning the win.
“I will say in real time, I thought it was possibly us winning the first three rounds even though I knew that they were close, I just thought we edged it out,” Sterling said on his YouTube channel. “Especially the fourth round, I knew Yan won that round, and then obviously as the fight’s going, Round 5, we knew [Yan] was starting to get the better of that round, so I figured it would be 3-2 us. But it ended up being 4-1 and 3-2 for Yan, which 3-2 I’m not super mad about. The 4-1 was kind of like, it always makes me wonder what the hell am I watching if I had it 3-2? I don’t know.
“Close fight. Yan, he did great, can’t really say anything about it. I do think Merab didn’t quite look himself, but I want to make sure I’m giving respect and props to Yan for the things that he also did well. So it could have been a little bit of both. A little bit of a bad night and also one guy was just on another level that night.”
If Dvalishvili was slightly diminished, it would be understandable given he was attempting to become the first fighter in UFC history to record four successful title defenses in a calendar year (it also would have been Dvalishvili’s third of the past six months). However, Dvalishvili made sure to congratulate Yan in his post-fight interview following the loss.
Dvalishvili also mentioned he may have engaged Yan in the standup too much in attempt to entertain viewers (an odd claim given that he attempted 29 takedowns, per UFC stats), and Sterling agrees he would have liked to have seen his teammate mix it up more.
“All in all, I thought fun fight for the fans,” Sterling said. “I can’t tell you why he decided to stand in front of him for as long as he did. We kind of started to tell him in between rounds, ‘Hey, now he’s thinking that we’re willing to trade with him. Now let’s start to add in that wrestling and that should be the X-factor to help us pull apart and pull away and create some distance in the scoring.’ But yeah, he would have to answer that. It’s really hard for me to say.”
“Definitely a couple of things we could learn from and grow from with this fight, which I’m happy about because as long as you have room to grow or to kind of see where you can correct some of the errors, that’s what’s the most important and I really just don’t think that was the best version of Merab with what we’ve seen out of him in basically all his fights,” Sterling added.
Yan is now in his second reign as undisputed bantamweight champion, following a brief run that ended in March 2021 when Yan landed an illegal knee on Sterling that cost him his title due to disqualification. He now faces the possibility of a third fight with Dvalishvili or, if Dvalishvili takes a much-needed break, possibly the winner of upcoming fights featuring Umar Nurmagomedov vs. Deiveson Figueiredo and Sean O’Malley and Song Yadong.
Nurmagomedov would be a fresh challenger for Yan, O’Malley would present Yan with the chance to avenge another loss, and Figueiredo and Song are likely on the outside looking in due to having recently lost to the current champion.
Sterling is optimistic Dvalishvili will be granted an immediate runback of the opportunity arises.
“Overall, for what I think was an off day, I think Merab still fought relatively well and probably would have beaten a lot of people still,” Sterling said. “I think us who train with him would agree with that. Yan, it was just his night, better man that night, and now they’re one fight apiece and I really hope they make the trilogy fight.”
TOP STORIES
Report. The MMA Fighting Crew breaks down the biggest takeaways coming out of UFC 323.
Huge. President Donald Trump thinks UFC White House could have “eight or nine” championship fights booked.
Hangover. Dvalishvili’s coach John Wood describes UFC 323 loss as being “like waking up from a nightmare.”
Odd. Joanna Jedrzejczyk issues a statement regarding her run-in with Jamahal Hill this past weekend.
Sure. Khamzat Chimaev accuses Alex Pereira of avoiding a fight.
Immortal. Dana White’s Contender Series and, yes, The Ultimate Fighter have a new home.
Awards. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Emily Blunt are both nominated for their starring roles in the Mark Kerr biopic The Smashing Machine.
VIDEO STEW
MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin talks to John Wood in the aftermath of UFC 323.
MMA Fighting’s Blaine Henry wonders if Merab Dvalishvili ran himself ragged.
Anik and Florian and Chael and DC give their take on the UFC’s last pay-per-view.
SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE
The best knockouts of the week.
Want now.
Solid.
Lest we forget.
He’ll be back.
Forever.
Don’t see that every day.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I’m confident saying we’re all still basking in the mostly good vibes (sorry, Pantoja) of UFC 323 while looking ahead to the slew of fights announced for the first quarter of 2026. Seems kind of weird that the UFC still has one more card this Saturday to cap off the year, but it’s kind of like a dessert. Like Jell-O.
UFC Vegas 112 is Jell-O.
EXIT POLL
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