By:  | January 18, 2023 11:22 am

After back to back losses Petr Yan appears to have lost some of his allure. His last seven fights have all taken place on pay per view cards but the Russian will be making his comeback on a fight night event at the Virgin Hotel in Las Vegas.

The news was announced by the Las Vegas Review Journal just now. Yan is set to take on Merab Dvalishvili at the hotel on March 11th just a few days after UFC 285 at the nearby T-Mobile Arena:

Back to back

Yan is based permanently in Phuket and fights out of Tiger Muay Thai. He is the former UFC bantamweight champion but is coming off back to back split decision losses.

The defeat to Aljamain Sterling at UFC 273 was extremely controversial with Yan appearing to win three of the five rounds. The loss to Sean O’Malley at UFC 280 will go down as one of the worst robberies in the promotion’s history and saw the former champion slip to #2 in the rankings.

Winning streak

While he won’t be on the big show this time around Yan has not been handed an easy matchup. He goes up against #3 ranked Dvalishvili, a submission specialist who is on an eight fight winning streak.

With Dvalishvili hailing from Georgia this fight is sure to attract plenty of attention in Russia. But more eyeballs will be on UFC 285 which takes place in Las Vegas a week earlier and features a heavyweight title fight.

Big card

Ciryl Gane will be fighting Jon Jones for the vacant belt at the T-Mobile Arena in one of the biggest UFC cards of the year. Jones is moving up from light heavyweight and both men will be looking to win the title recently vacated by Francis Ngannou.

It is the type of card Yan has become accustomed to fighting on and he sounded extremely upset after his decision loss to O’Malley. He will be looking to get his career back on track with a win over Dvalishvili and will be hoping for a little more luck with the judges if the fight goes the distance.

UFC TBA, Las Vegas, March 11th
Petr Yan vs. Merab Dvalishvili (Bantamweight)