Upset alert! Petr Yan will ‘probably win’ with ‘simple’ adjustment for Merab rematch at UFC 323
Merab Dvalishvili is looking to make history this weekend when he defends his bantamweight belt against former 135-pound titleholder Petr Yan. Their five-round showdown tops the UFC 323 pay-per-view (PPV) event on Dec. 5 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, and marks the continuation of their UFC Las Vegas battle that ended in favor of “The Machine.”
So what can Yan do differently the second time around?
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“Just get taken down 10 times instead of 50 and you’ll probably win,” former UFC bantamweight champion, Dominick Cruz, told Mike Bohn. “Think about that for a second. It’s really that simple. 40 takedowns off. Is that possible for Petr Yan? I think it’s very possible. The other thing is, I think the Fight Analytics are the ones who make the takedowns. I don’t think they know what a takedown is. I really mean that. It’s sad. It’s depressing that they don’t know what a takedown is; but it’s okay, they’re doing the best they can. He got something like 30 takedowns on (Cory) Sandhagen in one fight. This is what he does. So if you’re Petr Yan, what do you gotta do? Well, if I just get it to 10 takedowns instead of 50, I already gave myself 40-percent better chance, right?”
Dvalishvili (21-4) became the all-time leader in takedowns (117) by blanketing Cory Sandhagen at UFC 320.
“Strike count changes everything, too,“ Cruz added. ”So if you’re throwing all body shots to Merab, you’re doing all body work and you throw very limited kicks, how does he shoot on you if your arms are going to your body? Now he can’t get underneath your arms, right? And his favorite shot is a single leg. So get very proficient in stuffing that single leg. O’Malley had a really good single leg defense. I think he should go back and watch O’Malley’s single leg defense. He should copy that. Take away the single leg, force him to shoot doubles, funnel him to double legs, and funnel him to force that, then change your punch count from body work to uppercuts, and knees and elbows into clinch. Those are things that can really make a difference for you. And he has all those tools. But it’s gonna take fight IQ and good game planning and good coaching too, I think.“
Yan (19-5) is a sizable betting underdog for their UFC 323 rematch.
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“This is the thing that I made my style off of is feint, fake to break timing and rhythm and angles,” Cruz said. “Now if you’re at an angle, there’s no shot. You can’t shoot unless they’re in front of you. And I think that’s why Petr Yan got taken down so much because he always fights on a very straight line. Forward, back, forward, back. There’s very little side-to-side with him. So you have to figure out a way, he’s got to figure out a way to move side-to-side. Got to figure out a way to add it in, the lateral movement, and pull Merab into stuff. Sean O’Malley has a style like that that’s similar to what I do, like how he does pull side-to-side, a lot of lateral movement, a lot of footwork. But he doesn’t have the wrestling base that Merab has, so he couldn’t stop the takedowns.”
Jose Aldo could, blanking Dvalishvili 0-16 at UFC 278 (but lost the fight anyway).
As for Yan, he was bombarded with 49 takedown attempts at UFC Las Vegas with only 11 getting through. That was enough to sway the “Sin City” judges, though Yan argues he was only fighting at 50-percent of his health. “No Mercy” rebounded from his “Machine” loss to bag three in a row and holds steady at No. 3 in the official bantamweight rankings.
