Las Vegas (USA) has come to an end a promising UFC tournament, in the main event of which the Russian MMA fighter Petr Yan lost to the Georgian Merab Dvalishvili and further moved away from the title chance. Sport analyzes No Mercy's third defeat in a row and talks about other bright confrontations at UFC Fight Night 221.
Would you believe that Peter's career would have a tougher rivalry than the «feud» with Aljamain Sterling? Aljo's friend, the Georgian wrestler Merab Dvalishvili, shook up the confrontation with Jan so much that even the story of two scandalous fights against the American faded. After all, the champion's sparring partner in every possible way entangles politics in sports (Merab promoted the meeting with Peter as a meeting between Georgia and Russia), goes through the opponent and his native country through the media, and provokes at the sterdown. An insult (on the video you can hear that Dvalishvili called No Mercy «s***») during yesterday's sterdown almost led to a brawl.
In general, this meeting at the beginning of 2022 was difficult to imagine due to the different positions of the athletes in the ranking of the bantamweight division.
And how everything has changed in a year… Petya, having lost three of the last four fights, rolled back in the championship race, while Merab brought the winning streak to eight fights and came close to the title chance.< br> 
It is difficult to say what broke Peter. Perhaps, the injustice of the judges in the last two fights made themselves felt, but this weekend there were no claims against the referees even close.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Yang actively worked with his feet and at first he was impeccable in defense against takedowns. Yes, I gave up the first round, but everyone knows how carefully Peter picks up speed and accelerates only towards the middle of the fight, having fully read the opponent and identified his weak points. But there was a second five-minute period. The third one has begun. And No Mercy never turned on. Judge Herb Dean's remarks about not sticking out fingers and a sharp elbow from the clinch are all that can be said about the former champion after the first half of the fight.
And the other half didn't exist. Dvalishvili set an unrealistic pace, which lasted all 25 minutes: having caught courage, the underdog not only “fenced” Peter, but also interrupted the favorite in the standing position. The «gas tank» of the Georgian in the first five-round fight in his career really struck. Jan, with his right eye closed from a hematoma, «breathed» closer to the end, and Mashina (nickname Dvalishvili — ed.) kept on revving and revving. It is not surprising that Merab almost doubled the Siberian in accurate accented shots (135 vs. 70) and transferred the Russian 11 times.
And there were 48 attempts at all, which was a record figure for the UFC.
The results of the main fight of UFC Fight Night 221:
- Dvalishvili defeated Jan on the judges' cards, taking all five rounds (50-45, 50-45, 50-45);
- Merab has nine wins in a row and the status of the second contender in the bantamweight division after American Sean O`Malley;
- Peter now has three defeats in a row and four in his last five fights;
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- Until today, Ian has never lost by unanimous decision (three separate decisions + disqualification).
Disaster. There is no other way to describe what happened in Vegas.
Who should Ian fight next? So far, it is premature to talk about this (if not to say it is inappropriate). It is worth waiting for the statement of our fighter and understanding his vision of the difficult situation.
It’s also hard to talk about Dvalishvili’s prospects, because it won’t be fundamental to fight Aljamain Sterling Merab, and to meet with other contenders means risking your position in the ranking. The layout is stalemate. But it can be resolved safely if, after defeating Henry Cejudo in May, Aljo moves up to featherweight and leaves the gold to his friend. which could not leave indifferent domestic MMA fans:
- Said NURMAGOMEDOV lost to Jonathan Martinez from the USA in a very close fight and suffered his first defeat in the last five bouts. The decision of the judges seemed extremely controversial: most of the fight, the initiative was on the side of the Russian; the first round, falling for a choke hold. Shakhtar has the third victory in a row! By the way, the fight was supposed to take place two weeks ago, but a few hours before entering the octagon, the fight was canceled due to severe poisoning in Krylov;
- Alexander VOLKOV did not notice the resistance of another Sasha, Alexander Romanov from Moldova. The Muscovite easily defended himself from passes to the legs and scored a technical knockout in the very first round — for Drago this is the second success in a row, while King Kong is experiencing a second defeat in a row.