Chris Weidman thinks Merab Dvalishvili has to address a specific weakness at UFC 333.
Dvalishvili (21-2 MMA, 14-3 UFC) will look to reclaim his bantamweight title from champion Petr Yan (20-5 MMA, 12-4 UFC) in the Oct. 24 co-main event at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi (Paramount+).
The pair have split their first two appearances, with Dvalishvili stifling Yan in their first fight in March 2023. However, in their title-fight rematch at UFC 323, Yan was able to fend off Dvalishvili's grappling and bust him up on the feet. Weidman says Dvalishvili trying to defend his title a historic four times in a year cost him.
"It's not just a four-fight (win streak): Umar Nurmagomedov, Cory Sandhagen, and Sean O'Malley, these are some of the best bantamweights of all time
he takes out in a year," Weidman said on "Deep Waters." "And then he goes against Petr Yan in a rematch. I just feel like I want to emphasize what that was like for Merab to go through. You know what it's like to go through a lot of fights in a year. Your body's banged up, you're going from one to the other.
"Imagine having four title fights with all the promotional sh*t, keeping everybody happy, trying to make money at the same time as training. I thought 'The Machine' could get it done. If anybody was going to do it, it was 'The Machine,' but man, 'The Machine' got a little rusty. ... Merab is a very smart fighter, too, so I'm very interested to see how he comes back knowing what worked and what didn't work in the last fight. I think we're going to see a different Merab. I'm curious on what different changes he makes."
Yan had Dvalishvili wincing from several hard shots to the liver. Sean O'Malley was also able to badly hurt Dvalishvili to the body in their title fight, which concerns Weidman.
"The only thing I'm worried about with him, those body shots, those teeps and stuff like that," Weidman said. "We've seen him hurt couple of times, and that will stop him from being able to like mix it up the right way. He can box so good. We should give Yan his flowers because he's f*cking good. He is so good. His boxing is nasty, takedown near the fence is nasty, and some of the stuff that we've even seen in the first Aljo (Sterling) fight, some of the trips that he was getting Aljo with. He's slick."
Weidman, who trained with Dvalishvili at Serra-Longo for years, wants Dvalishvili to show a more fired-up version instead of acknowledging that he got "humbled."
"The other thing that did change mentally, I feel like for Merab, is that before the first fight, he hated Petr Yan," Wediman said. "He felt like Petr Yan was this Russian bully, and he would talk about how they have to serve in the military and stuff, and every single day Russia would just move their border a little bit more into Georgia, and then they would have to back up and move away as Russia just takes over a little bit more, like an acre at a time every day. Just enough to where a war won't start.
"That's what happens to these countries around Russia, I guess, and so he has this thing about Russians to begin with. And then Petr Yan had said some things that he felt like was a bully mentality, and he thinks of Russia as a bully to begin with. He took it very personal, and he wanted to crush Petr Yan. Then you go into the second fight, he wasn't as edgy with him at all. He was kind of chill, and I think going into this one, it's the same thing. I want to see that Merab hate again, bro, because he wanted to bring death to Petr Yan in that first one."
Dvalishvili went 11-for-49 on takedowns against Yan in their first fight, and Weidman says "The Machine" needs to implement a similar strategy to win the trilogy.
"Overwhelm him, just keep non-stop shots, kind of like what he did in the first fight," Weidman said. "Stay away from the body shots, movement, movement, blitz, look for your takedowns. He can't be at striking range with him because those body shots."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC analyst points to big concern for Merab Dvalishvili in Petr Yan trilogy
