I believed we had been successful and controlling

Coach John Wooden just lately received trustworthy about his pupil Merab Dvalishvili shedding to Petr Yan of their rematch and shared his tackle how the combat went.

Dvalishvili went up in opposition to Yan final weekend on the T-Cellular Enviornment in Las Vegas. On condition that Dvalishvili secured a dominant unanimous resolution win of their first encounter, many anticipated ‘The Machine’ to beat the Russian fighter once more. Nevertheless, Yan pushed Dvalishvili to his limits over 5 rounds of their rematch and reclaimed the bantamweight title by way of unanimous resolution.

Had Dvalishvili received, he would’ve made historical past as the primary UFC champion ever to safe 4 title defenses in a single calendar yr. Given what was at stake, it is no shock that the Georgian-born wrestling maestro’s coach is struggling to return to phrases with the title loss.

In an interview with MMA Combating, coach Wooden mirrored on Dvalishvili’s efficiency in opposition to Yan and stated:

“Clearly, a really tough weekend. It sucks. It’s a heartbreaker, however it’s the sport… I believed we had been successful and controlling, and I believed we had been urgent and doing what we wanted to do. Petr positively had the larger moments, and I believe that shifted [the fight], and also you simply don’t know… He had the larger moments in these issues, and that basically did account for the harm and the blood; these had been the issues that added up and took over.”

He added:

“It sucks. It’s like waking up from a nightmare. This doesn’t go away. I believed we had the suitable issues occurring on this camp, and it was a fast camp, and it was a tough camp. There are lots of issues that go on behind the scenes. But it surely was Petr’s evening.” [H/t: MMA Fighting]

Watch coach John Wooden’s full interview beneath:

Coach John Wooden on a possible Petr Yan vs. Merab Dvalishvili trilogy combat

Coach John Wooden believes Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili will throw down in a trilogy combat subsequent yr. The veteran coach identified that Dvalishvili and Yan at the moment are 1-1 in opposition to one another and placed on an entertaining present for the followers each occasions.

In the identical interview, coach Wooden predicted a trilogy combat subsequent yr and stated:

“There’s little question you’ll [see it again]. I’m positive that it’d already be being talked about. It’s a kind of issues, two nice fights and Petr popping out and performing like that in opposition to any person that everyone thought was unstoppable at the moment, units up an enormous trilogy.”

He added:

“It was an exceptional combat. So I imply, who’s not going to need to see that once more? These are two guys who depart all of it on the market, who’re fighters’ fighters. There isn’t any doubt in my thoughts that in 2026, you will note the trilogy for positive.”