UFC bantamweight champion, Petr Yan, retained his belt with an extraordinary Fight of the Year-contending epic against familiar rival Merab Dvalishvili on the 24th of October at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
Prior to the opening bell, it was impossible to separate Yan from Dvalishvili with the 135-pound fighters seemingly battling for the title of greatest bantamweight in UFC history, considering their respective bodies of work.
On Saturday, Dvalishvili enjoyed the upper hand in the opening round, but it was not long before Yan battled back to defeat the former titleholder narrowly on the scorecards. As those scorecards were leaked, though, controversy appeared to raise its head as many disputed one particular round — and even Ilia Topuria, the former two-division UFC champion, had something to say.
Petr Yan vs Merab Dvalishvili Scorecards
What was interesting about the fight is that all three judges, David Lethaby, Darryl Ransom, and Vito Paolillo, scored the fight in an identical manner. Not only did they all return cards of 48-47 to favor Yan by unanimous decision, but they scored each round the same, too.
This means all three judges scored the first two rounds to Dvalishvili, before recognizing Yan’s comeback to claim rounds three to five. This, though, generated a lot of debate on social media, with some posters asking how not one judge scored the third to Dvalishvili.
See the scorecards right here:
Even Ilia Topuria, the once-defeated former two-division champion of the UFC, reacted to the fight and the cards, shortly after the announcer confirmed the result.
Topuria, a Spanish-Georgian, said this of his fellow Georgian fighter’s performance against Yan.
“Who watched the fight? 48-47 Yan? No. What are you saying. Who won? Merab wins, yes?”
“Merab, we’re proud of you,” he added, later. “It wasn’t the result we wanted.”
It is unclear where Dvalishvili will go from here. As for Topuria, he was last seen on the 14th of June when he looked lost, and got battered, when he fought an in-form, merciless Justin Gaethje at UFC Freedom 250.
About Author
