Dvalishvili, Volkov dispatch foes in brutal UFC Fight Night

MANILA, Philippines – Merab Dvalishvili kept his word.

After a contentious war of words in the months — over a year even — leading up to UFC Fight Night last February 12, the Georgian mixed martial arts fighter bested Russian counterpart Petr Yan via unanimous decision (the three judges all scored it 50-45 for Dvalishvili) at the Theater at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas.

Both bantamweights exploded out of their corners when signaled to begin the fight — an indication of the dislike between the two.

Eventually, Yan opted to occasionally snipe with his jabs, but Dvalishvili was relentless in pressing forward.

Not only did the Georgian land more punches than his Russian foe, but he also racked up a record 49 takedown events.

As a result, Dvalishvili earned the unanimous decision and exclaimed, "I am so proud now! It was very personal for me, but I tried so hard to keep it professional. And now, I was able to show my work. Petr called me 'zero'. Who's 'zero' now?! My style is difficult, I welcome anybody!"

Prior to the match, Dvalishvili made his press conference political when he scored Yan’s country for invading his country back in 2014. The Georgian has been vocal of his support for Ukraine in this time of Russian invasion. Although Yan has made statements for peace between Russia and Ukraine, Dvalishvili was having none of it. 

In the other co-main event between another pair of Eastern European neighbors that have dislike for each another, eighth-ranked Russian Alexander Volkov and No. 14 Alexandr Romanov went right to work in their co-main event bout. 

Romanov made Volkov defend the takedown early but got punished for it. Volkov landed a damaging right hand, and the referee called off the action due to unanswered ground and pound at the 2:16 mark of the first round. 

 
Volkov scored his 24th KO and said, "I knew he was going to use all his strength in that takedown so I had to keep moving forward. I'd like to thank everyone who helped me with my wrestling. I'm ready for whoever UFC gives me. Call me out!"

The Fight of the Night went to Vitor Petrino versus Anton Turkalj. The former won via unanimous decision in the main cards.

The Performance of the Night was awarded to Davey Grant who submitted Raphael Assuncao with a reverse triangle choke at the 4:43 mark of the third round.

A co-Performance of the Night awardee was Bruno Silva, who got the job done against Tyson Nam with a rear-naked choke at 1:23 of the second round.