15 Perfect Minutes

Petr Yan did the unthinkable. He rallied back against a Merab Dvalishvili who was up 2-0 on the judges’ scorecards to win the rubber match of their trilogy. Here is a review of Yan’s perfect 15 minutes, Alexander Volkanovski’s dominant win over Movsar Evloev, and a preview of another article to look forward to later this week.

Now let’s get into it.

Petr Yan beat Merab Dvalishvili. After 754 strikes and 24 takedowns crammed into 75 minutes of fighting across 3 fights Yan is the better bantamweight.

Merab ran over Yan in their first fight and it looked like he was getting ready to do the same thing again this Saturday. Merab was moving fast and getting closer to his winning ways unlike their last fight. Merab was on top of Yan’s hips after the first minute of this fight ended.

I know I know. This takedown didn’t “score”.

But we’re not wrestling and Merab’s game isn’t about completing the takedowns and pinning people. Merab’s high output style hinges on his ability to get to a body lock. There he is able to trip his opponent, run them around, and wear on them until they wither.

Yan prevented Merab’s body locks for almost all of the second fight. That was key to maintaining his cardio and punishing Merab later in the fight. This time it looked like Merab was going to get what he wanted. He was glued to Yan by the end of the first round.

It’s not like Yan wasn’t doing anything. It’s just that most of the fight was happening on the challenger’s terms.

By the start of the third round Merab had already scored 5 takedowns, landed more than double the strikes Yan did, and tripled his attempts.

Then the whole fight flipped.

Yan started stinging Merab with punches. Then Merab wasn’t comfortable staying in boxing range so he stood further away and rushed takedown attempts from outside. Yan would use the range to switch stances and kick Merab’s body again.

You’ll notice that Yan didn’t have to sprawl, hand fight, or do much wrestling at all because Merab was shooting from so far away. Yan only had to pop his hips back and keep his elbows inside of Merab’s outstretched arms. Plus Yan continued to target the body as the fight wore on.

The single strike that looked most impactful to me was Yan’s left hook on. He was finding a home for it on the end of his combinations and after Merab’s attempts to clinch failed.

Even with Yan’s damaging third and fourth rounds the fight was still tied going into the fifth. If there was any doubt on who the rightful winner should be Yan sealed his victory with an emphatic final minute.

Every week my friends at The MMA Draw ask me for picks and predictions for upcoming fights. I ended my prediction of Petr Yan’s trilogy fight with Merab Dvalishvili by saying that every judge gave Merab at least one round in their second fight whereas Yan lost every round of their first fight which led me to believe that Yan had to be perfect for 15 minutes whereas Merab only had to be active enough to steal 15 minutes to win this third fight which sounded more plausible.

Plausible. Reasonable. Believable.

These are not words you can use to describe Petr Yan after watching him beat Merab Dvalishvili a second time. No one has come back against Merab to steal the final three rounds of a fight after dropping the first two. The word I’m left with to describe Yan’s final 15 minutes is perfect.

In those minutes he stopped 39 takedown attempts relinquishing less than 20 seconds of control time.

Petr Yan disassembled the man we call The Machine, Merab Dvalishvili.

If you only look at the raw stats of the third fight you will see a more active Merab lose. But that’s not the story of their trilogy.

Last week’s article started with a self-indulgent paragraph on why both stories and fights get good when they have specific moments of change. The change brings the drama which brings greater excitement.

I’m sure you’ve heard the cliche that one athlete brought out the best in the other. That phrase wouldn’t even begin to sum up everything that happened in the trilogy.

These men’s fighting styles facilitate the other’s. They both ask each other complicated questions that get answered between the minutes and the rounds and the full fights themselves. Those answers will help Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili stand out in this division’s history for as long as the sport is around.

Alexander Volkanovski returned to Featherweight to fight a man different than Diego Lopes for the first time since February 2024. He was defending his belt against undefeated Movsar Evloev. Evloev was 20-0 with half of those wins coming in the UFC.

Many, myself included, thought the younger grappler would wrestle his way to a close decision win. Volk actually initiated the clinch first in this fight and Evloev did manage to get him off of his feet towards the end of the round.

It looked like Evloev was more focused on moving Volk around and making him work early to tire him out. He would release clinches after Volk started struggling and time right hands on the clinch breaks.

Something must have been in the air because there were a lot of sacrifice throws from rear body lock at UFC 333. Asaf Choporuv dropped to crab ride to take Colby Thicknesse down in their fight at UFC 333 too.

Maybe Colby and Volk drilled defending this takedown in their camp because Volk pulled this crafty counter out on Evloev in the second round.

Volk’s game plan was more straightforward. He was snapping Evloev’s head back with jabs to push him to the fence and line up his right. There he’d feint his right before throwing it both high and low. And he made sure Evloev was confused with its activity.

2 minutes later Volk lined up his right hand to get Evloev out of there.

This win puts Volkanovski at 19-1 as a Featherweight with the only man to beat him at 145 being Ilia Topuria. Volk’s run now spans three generations of featherweights with Chad Mendes and Jose Aldo, Max Holloway and Brian Ortega, and now Diego Lopes and Movsar Evloev.

I’m an MMA hipster and even I can’t think of coherent argument to say Jose Aldo should be ranked above Volk as the greatest Featherweight of all time. The only question now is, what else is he going to try to achieve before he leaves the game?

There’s a type of fighter that is becoming more common in elite MMA. They stand with a wide stance, throw fast kicks at all angles, and counter their opponent rushing in with takedowns. Think of people like Usman and Umar Nurmagomedov.

Another one of these taekwondo takedown threats is fighting for a belt in German MMA promotion Oktagon. His name is Felix Klinkhammer.

The reason I think he’s such a fun watch is Klinkhammer pulls out crazy submissions when he’s on top and bottom unlike both Usman and Umar.

Klinkhammer fights this Saturday. I’m going to do a write-up on his game and why you should check him out ahead of time. I’ll send it out this Friday.