UFC President Dana White pays tribute to Merab Dvalishvili, who dominated Petr Yan, but is not thrilled that for personal reasons the Georgian fighter does not want to fight reigning UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling.
“It was an incredible fight,” the head of the organization said at a press conference in Las Vegas. “Usually Petr Yan sets the pace, but today Merab set the pace and showed a great performance, especially since he went five rounds for the first time”
“You can still be friends and want what your friend has. It’s very stupid of you not to want to fight Aljamain Sterling. If Merab chose this path, it is a very bad idea. He needs to decide whether he wants to fight for the title or prefers to fight the toughest guys and still not get a title shot. This is his personal decision, and if he chooses the latter, it’s the end of the story. He’s a grown man and he has to make up his mind about it.”
As for Petr Yan, who suffered a third defeat in a row, the head of the UFC is in no hurry to write off the Russians.
“Peter Yan is still one of the best in the world. He fought Merab, who was extremely motivated, and as I said, usually Ian turned up the pace from round to round and won, but today Merab did it. It was a #2 vs. #3 fight – when someone loses a fight like that, you can’t say the guy is over. He lost to one of the best in the world.”
Recall that the fight in the bantamweight division between Peter Yan and Merab Dvalishvili, who headed the UFC Fight Night 221 tournament in Las Vegas, went the whole distance and ended with the defeat of the Russian fighter by unanimous decision with a score of 50-45 three times.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/31009-prezident-ufc-predostereg-meraba-dvalishvili.html?rand=19907
