Things got heated between Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili on Friday ahead of their UFC Fight Night main event clash scheduled for Saturday night.
The two top-five bantamweight standouts will meet inside the Octagon in a potential title eliminator at The Theater at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas. Ahead of the highly anticipated matchup, the 135-pound standouts went face-to-face for the final time and things got a little chippy between the two. In the video clip, which you can see below, Dvalishvili can be heard calling his opponent a “b*tch” as they stood side-by-side. Petr Yan then shoved Dvalishvili by the throat.
The fighters were quickly separated to prevent any further incident as Merab Dvalishvili flashed a smile, clearly amused by the fact that he got under his opponent’s skin.
Merab Dvalishvili Enters Fight with Petr Yan as a Moderate Underdog Despite Eight-Fight Win Streak
‘The Machine’ will enter the biggest fight of his MMA career riding an eight-fight win streak dating back to 2018. That run includes wins over John Dodson, Cody Stamann, Marlon Moraes, and Jose Also. Despite that, Dvalishvili enters the bout a moderate +220 underdog. That number is especially surprising when you consider that Petr Yan has lost three of his last four contests.
Of course, those losses were all scrutinized by the MMA community, the first being a fourth-round disqualification following an illegal knee to opponent Aljamain Sterling at UFC 259. ‘No Mercy’ bounced back with a win over Cory Sandhagen, but has since lost back-to-back bouts against Sterling and No. 1 ranked bantamweight contender Sean O’Malley. Yan found himself on the wrong side of heavily-debated split decisions in both matchups.