How Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili built their bantamweight trilogy at UFC 333

UFC 333 is set to deliver a bantamweight championship rubber match in the co-main event, bringing Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili together again after each fighter won one of their first two meetings. The fight matters because bantamweight has produced unusually frequent title turnover in the UFC’s recent era, with the belt changing hands 10 times since 2016 among eight different champions, and only Aljamain Sterling and Merab Dvalishvili defending the title more than once.

Their first encounter went to Dvalishvili by unanimous decision, with UFC reporting that he “swept” the scorecards while setting a high-volume grappling pace. UFC also notes that Dvalishvili used the bout as a key step before his own title shot, and that Yan entered that matchup while rebuilding after two close split-decision losses to Aljamain Sterling and Sean O’Malley.

Between the first fight and the second, both men moved through different competitive stretches. UFC reported that in 2024 Yan began stacking wins, posting unanimous decision victories over Song Yadong in March and Deiveson Figueiredo in November, and that this rebound continued into a run that reset Yan’s path to title contention. UFC also reported that Yan said he had been dealing with lower-body injuries going into the Song Yadong fight, underscoring how the early part of his comeback was not simply about form.

On the other side, UFC described Dvalishvili’s rise in 2024 as relentless, with unanimous decision wins over Henry Cejudo in January and Sean O’Malley in September. UFC then tied Dvalishvili’s title-winning trajectory to Noche UFC 306 in Las Vegas, reporting that he outworked O’Malley over five rounds to win the bantamweight belt.

The trilogy’s setup sharpened again when UFC reported that in 2025 Yan accepted a higher-risk path by taking a fight against Marcus McGhee, earning a unanimous decision win that put him in line for bantamweight gold. UFC also framed Dvalishvili’s 2025 title run as record-chasing, including a submission win over O’Malley, and additional unanimous decision victories over Umar Nurmagomedov and Cory Sandhagen, while noting ’s Fighter of the Year recognition for his grind of a schedule.

With the rubber match now scheduled as the co-main event at UFC 333: Volkanovski vs Evloev, the central point is simple: the bantamweight title fight is not a fresh matchup, it is a decisive third chapter after each fighter already proved they could win when it counted. The question is no longer who has the cleaner path in the past, it is which style and adjustments survive a full trilogy once the belt is on the line again.

UFC also indicated that the event will run with prelims at 10 a.m. ET and the main card at 2 p.m. ET, placing the championship rubber match within a midday U.S. window for viewers.