Preview: UFC 323 ‘Dvalishvili vs. Yan 2’

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday lands in Las Vegas for the last pay-per-view of 2025, and UFC 323 should serve up an enjoyable time at T-Mobile Arena. The lighter weight classes take center stage, as the top four bouts all take place at 135 pounds and below. The headliner sees Merab Dvalishvili defend his bantamweight title in a rematch of a 2023 win over Petr Yan, which should at the very least see the champion bring his usual relentless pace. Meanwhile, the co-main event features a much fresher face as a title challenger, as flyweight prodigy Joshua Van looks to unseat Alexandre Pantoja at 125 pounds. Further down the draw, top prospects take on ex-champions in the next two fights, as Tatsuro Taira squares off with two-time titleholder Brandon Moreno and Payton Talbott faces former two-division titlist Henry Cejudo. One more former champion rounds out the bill, as Jan Blachowicz looks to hold serve against knockout artist Bogdan Guskov in a light heavyweight showcase.


Now to the UFC 323 “Dvalishvili vs. Yan 2” preview:

UFC Bantamweight Championship

Merab Dvalishvili (21-4, 14-2 UFC) vs. Petr Yan (19-5, 11-4 UFC)

BETTING ODDS: Dvalishvili (-410), Yan (+320)

Can anyone stop Dvalishvili? He scored a 15-second knockout of Raufeon Stots to earn a UFC contract back in 2017, which did not truly fit Dvalishvili’s game. The quick result showed his dedication to action, but for the next few years, Dvalishvili would primarily be known as a wrestler, albeit the most relentless one in the business. For all his talent and subsequent success, Dvalishvili’s UFC career got off to a surprisingly slow start. His focus on wrestling pace over actual offense cost him a split decision against Frankie Saenz, and he suffered a controversial loss to Ricky Simon when it was ruled that a guillotine choke rendered him unconscious at the final horn. Dvalishvili rebounded with a victory over Terrion Ware, then racked up win after win after win, even if it took him a while to start getting some notice. Dvalishvili’s focus on pace over control meant that he was more exciting than most grinders, but the UFC still apparently took time to warm to him, at least until a 2023 victory over Yan made him undeniable as a future contender. Dvalishvili drowned Yan in a five-round fight that seemingly broke the rules of the sport, as he attempted 49 takedowns and 401 strikes during those 25 minutes—an inhuman pace that only he has been close to matching. The 2024 campaign might have actually been a minor step back for Dvalishvili, even if his two fights on the year did include winning the bantamweight title against Sean O’Malley. Henry Cejudo was at least able to wrestle with Dvalishvili for the first round of a three-round fight, and the threat of O’Malley’s striking resulted in a middling performance from “The Machine.” That just wound up setting the stage for an excellent 2025, with Dvalishvili making a clear case for “Fighter of the Year” by beating Umar Nurmagomedov, O’Malley and Cory Sandhagen to defend his belt. The Nurmagomedov fight was the closest of the bunch but only served to make Dvalishvili’s uniqueness even clearer. Nurmagomedov did all the right things, put together an excellent game plan and even fought well through exhaustion, only to watch Dvalishvili continue breaking past the limits of most fighters to win a clear decision as the fresher man. O’Malley made some improvements in a rematch only to get finished in the third round, and Sandhagen was another fighter with some smart ideas but seemingly no chance of actually getting past Dvalishvili. The most frightening part? Dvalishvili seems to be improving. His last two fights have shown off some career-best striking, with Dvalishvili effectively picking his spots to land some hard offense and leaving opponents with even more questions about exactly how to keep up. Just two months after the Sandhagen win, Dvalishvili steps back into the Octagon for a rematch with Yan to try and complete that case for “Fighter of the Year.”

About half a decade ago, if there was a clear choice to dominate the bantamweight division in the future, it probably would have been Yan, who looked unstoppable after beating Jose Aldo for the vacant title in 2020. Yan came to the UFC in 2018 with some considerable hype, and “No Mercy” lived up to every bit of it. He could take a bit to feel out his adversaries, but few fighters were as entertainingly violent as Yan once he was fully clicking, as he would pour on pressure to overwhelm opponent after opponent. The win over Aldo figured to set up Yan to reign over the division for years to come. Instead, he didn’t even make it to one successful title defense, thanks to some particularly bizarre circumstances. Yan’s first defense came against Aljamain Sterling, who had some solid ideas in outwrestling Yan early but eventually tired himself out and was clearly losing by the championship rounds. He was tired enough that he wound up exhausted and on his knees at one point during the fight, which is when Yan decided to calculatedly blast Sterling with a knee to the head that left his challenger unable to continue. The result was the UFC’s first title change via disqualification, though Yan was still essentially considered the uncrowned champion until a rematch a year later. It was assumed that Yan would officially just take back his title, but Sterling stuck to his wrestling effectively enough to eke out a decision victory and send the Russian into a bit of a tailspin in the process. O’Malley was effective enough with his striking to also drag Yan into a close loss, and Dvalishvili poured on so much pressure that he was unable to keep up. Yan took a year off after the loss to Dvalishvili, and he looked much more like his old self upon his return, building his offense to string together some wins that are both definitive and entertaining. None of the opponents during this winning streak looked primed to focus on control at the level needed to neutralize Yan and keep the Russian from building much momentum. As a result, there isn’t much to suggest that he has cracked the code of how to get by Dvalishvili the second time around. If there’s any cause for optimism on the Yan side, it might be that Dvalishvili’s newfound love for striking allows his challenger to build some early momentum—or the fact that the Georgian is assumedly mortal and will age at some point. Yan is the right challenger for the moment and it should be an engaging rematch, but the read is fairly clear. The pick is Dvalishvili via decision.

Continue Reading »
Dvalishvili vs. Yan
Pantoja vs. Van
Taira vs. Moreno
Talbott vs. Cejudo
Blachowicz vs. Guskov
The Prelims