For a fighter with seemingly boundless energy, a daredevil spirit outside of the Octagon and possibly the greatest cardio the sport of MMA has ever seen inside of it, Merab Dvalishvili isn't worried about anything related to the physical realities of the aging process. In fact, it has been difficult to find an interview with Dvalishvili over the past year, a proud native of Georgia who now fights out of Las Vegas, where the former UFC bantamweight champion isn't making some kind of proclamation about his intention to fight professionally forever. "My number is 50, I want to fight on until [the age of] 50," Dvalishvili told CBS Sports in September.
"Then, I want superfights after that!" red event and UFC Fight Night is included with your subscription! Plans start as low as $8.99/month or $89.99/year! Dvalshvili (21-5), the 12-year pro who saw his incredible 14-fight win streak snapped last December when he lost his 135-pound title via unanimous decision to Petr Yan in their rematch headlining UFC 323, will be 36 in January.
And should he regain his belt on Saturday when he faces Yan (21-5) in their trilogy bout at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi, Dvalishvili will become the oldest bantamweight to do so. "Age is just a number for me," Dvalishvili told CBS Sports last week. "I feel even better than what I was feeling when I was 25.
Look at [37-year-old UFC featherweight champion] Alexander Volkanovski and look at [Glover] Teixeira, when he won the belt and he was [42]. Look at Randy Couture [who won the UFC heavyweight title at 43]. It's about how you won it, how you fight and who you fight." Still, it's difficult to make an argument against the idea -- even if Dvalishvili openly disagrees -- that the majority of the pressure entering this trilogy is on the shoulders of "The Machine," who remains a slight betting underdog.
In 2023, after the Russian-born Yan was already two years and three losses removed from losing his UFC title by disqualification, Dvalishvili scored a key victory on his own road to the title via unanimous decision in their first meeting. Dvalishvili set a UFC record with 49 takedown attempts in the fight (completing 11), and Yan endured through a pre-existing broken right hand that left him unable to throw it more than twice in a fight that his manager and trainer had begged him to pull out of. But two years later, their rematch (and the circumstances surrounding it) were completely different.
Dvalishvili was daring to be great in his attempt to become the first champion in UFC history to make four title defenses in a single calendar year, which led him to accept the Yan rematch on just a two-month turnaround from his October win over Cory Sandhagen (where Dvalishvili set a UFC record with 20 successful takedowns while equaling the bantamweight record for consecutive title defenses). The 33-year-old Yan had entered the rematch riding a three-fight win streak, and he went on to shock the world by quickly getting up from the two times Dvalishvili took him down en route to completely neutralizing the two biggest weapons in his opponent's arsenal: cardio and wrestling. Not only did Yan go on to visibly hurt Dvalishvili on his way to a unanimous decision win, but he used his own wrestling to record more takedowns (5) against "The Machine" than any UFC opponent had ever done.
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