Petr Yan showed up looking shockingly prepared for everything Merab Dvalishvili had planned on Saturday at UFC 323. Yan had the takedown defense. Yan had the stifling striking game. Yan worked the head and the body as well as he possibly could have. And perhaps most impressive of all, Yan had the cardio — taking over down the stretch, during what is normally Merab Time — to secure a surprising victory for the men’s bantamweight title in a fight-of-the-year–candidate thriller.
In doing so, Yan put himself in position to begin chiseling out a legacy as one of the all-time greats. What now, though? An immediate rematch? The winner of O’Malley vs. Yadong? We’ll find out soon.
Elsewhere on the card, Joshua Van captured the flyweight title after Alexandre Pantoja’s elbow got its whole shit broke. And the ESPN Era is about to end in the most fitting way possible … with an Apex show headlined by Brandon Royval vs. Manel Kape.
