Petr Yan vs. Merab Dvalishvili Trilogy Fight Preview

All right, we've got the co-main event. Petr Yan, another legend of the sport. This is a trilogy fight, guys. Petr Yan won the last time that they fought and said he wasn't 100% the first time, that he was injured the first time, and Djavid Ishak fought a million fights at the time when he lost. So this is almost like, you know, equal ground for them right now. the rubber match with a with the bragging rights and the belt at stake here for these two yeah and you can make an excuse for both guys you know Yan had a fight had a broken hand in the first fight didn't do much you know Merab pretty much you know uh 50 45 across the board pretty much you know did what he wanted to do in that fight and then the next fight you know Merab had fought this was it was his fourth title fight in a year which is something you don't see uh weight cuts within about two months of each other which is also very tough i don't care who you are that it's tough you know Merab's known for his cardio and his toughness but you're making that many weight cuts in a year you're making that many weight cuts in a short period of time and then fighting a guy like Yan who came into that fight healthy Yan you know showed the takedown defense he showed the striking the striking was incredible in that fight so you can kind of make an excuse for both guys for the first two fights now coming into this one you wonder what's the excuse here and the one thing that that stands out to me and that scares me a lot because at first i really thought you know after these guys have fought you know 10 rounds against each other jan really looks like the better fighter but jan had but jan had back surgery in uh january and he had to go under the knife a couple times and back surgery really scares me uh with any fighter with any athlete it's just one of those things that you don't really know how guys are going to come back from that so while i do think jan has the more well-rounded skill set he definitely has a striking advantage i think if he's compromised at all with that back coming into this one this fight's very close and you know as we talked about previously we don't see title fights you know two title fights both champions winning on the same card and i feel like if there's going to be a a a contender that that takes the belt it's going to be Murab uh rob is the underdog here the odds for the first fight to the second fight shifted pretty dramatically they kind of shifted here i i feel like i'm leaning Murab but the confidence is not high because after what what jan did to him in that in the second fight it is really hard to pull that trigger is it you know it is attractive it is sitting right there in what is a toss-up fight it's a good point that you bring up too as far as backs are concerned with any athlete right you almost rather something breaks you know back back issues are always linger and if you're a fighter who really knows um after the fact