Petr Yan settled his long running rivalry with Merab Dvalishvili the hard way, grinding out a unanimous decision in the UFC 333 co-main event to keep his bantamweight title. The official scorecard confirmed the result after a full 25 minutes that both MMA Fighting and Sherdog described as a complete swing in momentum once Yan found his rhythm.

Dvalishvili came out the way he always does, pushing the pace and finding success with his wrestling through the first two rounds. But Sherdog reported that Yan had a specific plan to shut that down, and it showed. MMA Fighting detailed how Yan started picking his shots on the feet while his takedown defense completely stifled Dvalishvili's chain wrestling over the back half of the fight, turning what looked like a Dvalishvili fight into a Yan masterclass.

Dana White came away impressed with how Dvalishvili performed even in defeat, according to Yahoo Sports, praising the challenger despite the loss.

Our own tracker has Yan rated at 1552 on Elo across six bouts, while Dvalishvili actually sits higher at 1611 across seven, a gap that reflects just how competitive this trilogy has been even with Yan now up on the head to head ledger after this one. Both men fought on October 24 in what our data logs as Yan's win by unanimous decision.

Where the division goes from here is the real question. Dvalishvili is still ranked number one at bantamweight, and a third straight meeting with Yan seems unlikely to be next, which leaves plenty to sort out at the top of a weight class these two have dominated between them.

Fans are already dissecting the fight over on r/MMA, with one thread specifically zeroing in on a Dvalishvili takedown attempt that caught everyone, including Yan himself, off guard.