This weekend the UFC returns to Las Vegas for another fight night headlined by two top contenders in the Bantamweight division. Petr Yan will be throwing down with Merab Dvalishvili at the Virgin Hotel in Las Vegas in a five round main event here are his keys to victory.
For Yan, this isn’t his first five round main event after his title reign as 135 champion and then losing the belt via DQ to Dvalishvili’s team-mate, Aljamain Sterling. Since then Yan has fought to regain his title but has come up unsuccessful after claiming interim gold and failing to unify against Sterling.
In this article, you’ll find both key factors in this main event bout.
Petr Yan Has Loads of Experience
As I mentioned earlier, Yan is a former champion and former interim champion in this division. After losing his belt to Sterling in early 2021 via a controversial DQ. He went on to beat Cory Sandhagen for interim gold and then challenged for undisputed gold in April 2022. Yan’s experience in the main event is key in this bout. Being able to maintain composure and your energy output as well is critical, especially when fighting a wrestler in Dvalishvili.
Having fought and beaten the likes of Urijah Faber, Cory Sandhagen and the featherweight G.O.A.T in Jose Aldo. All the amazing fights showed how calm Yan can be. Even though his facial expression very rarely changes. In this article, you’ll find both key factors in this main event bout.
Mixed Martial Arts
In this game, mixed martial arts is key. You can’t just be good in one area anymore. You must be expert level in every facet of the game. If you go back and watch Yan’s first fight with Sterling, you’ll see that that was a fight that he was largely winning dominantly. Most importantly he was piecing Sterling up on the feet in most exchanges. Stuffing must of Sterling’s takedown attempts which is an incredibly crucial part of Yan and Dvalishvili’s game plan.
Dvalishvili is a very strong wrestler so his main route to success will be through takedowns but if Yan can manage to keep Dvalishvili off him then it’ll be a short night. On top of that dominant performance against Sterling the first time, Yan also had a very competitive fight with Jose Aldo. Admittedly, Aldo had his way in the opening rounds against Yan but in the later round, Yan came back. Eventually managing to stand with one of the best strikers in the lower-weight divisions.
Tune in this weekend to watch two bantamweight contenders throw down at the Virgin Hotel in Sin City.
What do you think are the keys to victory for Petr Yan?
Featured image credit to Embed from Getty Images
