"Didn't return the money": Dvalishvili criticized Yan before the title fight in the UFC

The day before the trilogy with the UFC lightest weight champion Petr Yan, Georgian fighter Merab Dvalishvili, strongly expressed his views about the Russian opponent and his circle in an interview with Daniil Cormier. "I don't think I could be friends with him. Maybe he is good for his family and friends, but he has friends whom I do not respect. One of his friends lost a bet of 50 thousand dollars to me and never returned the money to me. Another friend of his showed disrespect to my friend, and I slapped him. He went to the police and tried to have me arrested. He sued me and so on." And another story with his friend: he wrote about me on social media after the fight, calling me a "friend". Then a journalist asked him, "Are you friends now?" And he replied, "No, it wasn't me, my manager wrote it." Well, tell me, what kind of man allows his manager to write posts for him?" Dvalishvili said. Yan - Dvalishvili trilogy for the UFC championship The third fight between Yan and Dvalishvili will take place on October 24th at UFC 333 in the Etihad Arena (Abu Dhabi, UAE). The fight will be held as a main event of the evening and will be for the title: Yan will defend the UFC lightest weight champion belt, which he took from Dvalishvili in December 2025. The main fight of the tournament will be the title fight in the semi-lightweight division between Alexander Volkovski and Movsar Evloev. Watch this post on Instagram The history of the confrontation The first fight took place on March 11, 2023, at UFC Fight Night 221 in Las Vegas (Nevada, USA). Dvalishvili completely dominated through wrestling and pace: he attempted dozens of takedowns, controlled positions, and knocked Yan down with significant blows. The judges unanimously awarded the victory to the Georgian. The second fight took place on December 6, 2025, in the main event of UFC 323 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (Nevada, USA). This time Yan completely changed the picture of the fight. The Russian effectively worked boxing and body shots, stopped attempts to go to ground, and inflicted serious injuries on Dvalishvili. Yan won by unanimous decision, stopped Dvalishvili's streak of 14 consecutive wins, and regained the championship belt. The UFC boss spoke about the cancellation of the tournament in the UAE after explosions in Riyadh It was previously known that the British lightweight fighter Farid Basharat is no longer a UFC fighter. The organization did not offer him a new contract.