“He was in big trouble the whole fight – he didn’t look the same,” Big John said in a post-UFC Fight Night 221 podcast. “His confidence vanished and he wasn’t the same striker. He did not show the previous efficiency. He was more worried about not allowing himself to be transferred, and generally succeeded in this.
“In the first round, Merab delivered a low-kick, and it seemed to me that he injured Peter’s knee – he somehow stumbled strangely. I began to observe and saw no obvious evidence of injury, but at first it seemed to me that his right leg was injured. Maybe there was no injury, but from that moment on, Peter did not show even half of what he did before.
“Before, Peter always lined up his fight. He started slowly, read his opponent, found the right clues, and always stuck to his line. In this fight, he could not line up anything at all and remained at the same level as in the first round.
A day after the defeat by unanimous decision, Petr Yan reported on the problems that in the fight that took place did not allow him to “neither move nor beat”, but did not specify the nature of the injury.