The UFC 323 pre-fight press conference went down last night from Las Vegas, Nevada and featured a whole lot of back and forths between main event fighters Merab Dvalishvili and Petr Yan.
The bantamweight champ Dvalishvili has spent fight week in a pretty chill state, but finally showed some fire after a number of aggressive statements from challenger Yan to the media. One of those statements was the claim “No Mercy” was seriously injured in their first fight.
“In my first fight, I fought with him with one arm,” Yan said at the press conference. “He tried 49 takedowns.”
“Petr you are better than this, stop making excuses, please!” Dvalishvili interrupted. “No excuse! When I beat you on December 6th, what excuse you gonna make? Tell me now! You gonna make excuse when I beat you again? Tell me now, please. Are you gonna make any excuse on December 6th or no, tell me now. Do you have any injuries now?”
“Guys, I feel great and this Saturday you’re going to see me in the best shape of my life,” Yan replied through a translator.
Later, though, Dvalishvili offered Yan an olive branch once their second fight was over.
“Hey, you are welcome in my jacuzzi,” he said, a reference to the time he and Sean O’Malley made peace in a hot tub. “Wanna come jacuzzi after?”
“You have plenty of people in your jacuzzi, I don’t need to be near there,” Yan replied. “I feel like you should have girls in your jacuzzi instead of who you have. But if you like to be in the jacuzzi with the boys, that’s up to you.”
“What’s the problem with girls or boys together?” a confused Merab replied. “It doesn’t matter, bro. We can mix.”
“All I saw is you’ve got boys in yours. Honestly I haven’t even seen you with a girl before at all.”
Dvalishvili seemed at a loss for words on how to respond, like he wasn’t even quite sure what joke Yan was making at his expense. In general, Merab seemed a bit low energy, like the fourth cut to 135 in a year was sucking away his ability to speak or understand English as well as he usually could.
On Saturday, December 6th at UFC 323 we’ll see how Merab’s energy holds up against Petr Yan in the cage.