Dvalishvili defeated former bantamweight champion Yan

Merab Dvalishvili defeated former bantamweight champion Petr Yan by unanimous decision in the main event of UFC Fight Night on Saturday at The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.

Dvalishvili (16-4), 32, has won nine consecutive fights. He was coming off a unanimous decision win over Jose Aldo at UFC 278 in August. The Georgia-born fighter hasn’t lost since 2018, a disputed submission loss to Ricky Simon.

The bantamweight turned in a historic performance in the win. He attempted a UFC-record 49 takedowns, breaking the previous record of 33 set by former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez in 2012, and was successful in 11 of them. According to UFC Stats, Dvalishvili also connected on 202 of 401 total strikes, compared to Yan’s 87 of 155.

Yan (16-5) has lost three consecutive fights after becoming UFC interim bantamweight champion with a win over Cory Sandhagen in October 2021. The Russian won the vacant UFC bantamweight belt with a technical knockout over Aldo in July 2020 and lost it in March 2021 by disqualification (illegal knee) to Aljamain Sterling.

Yan, 29, lost a rematch against Sterling, Dvalishvili’s training partner, at UFC 273 in April 2022 and then lost another close fight to Sean O’Malley at UFC 280 in October.