"He could have won this fight": TJ Dillashaw on Merab Dvalishvili's 5-from-58 takedowns

Dillashaw says Dvalishvili should fake his shots and fire knees, kicks and combinations. Dvalishvili landed five of a record 58 takedown attempts in his UFC 333 defeat by Petr Yan.

TJ Dillashaw says Merab Dvalishvili had a way to beat Petr Yan at UFC 333 and cannot understand why he has not added it to his game. "The only thing is that Merab doesn't have another way to beat Yan," the former UFC champion said on the JAXXON PODCAST. "The way he can slow him down from throwing punches is by shooting a shot. The way that he can score points is by getting a takedown."

"He's the best in the world at getting on the legs. He's a f***ing nightmare to fight. But imagine if he is now using his takedowns to set up his strikes. Why is that not part of his f***ing game?" Dillashaw said.

"He would be even more of a nightmare if he's like faking a shot. You saw how much Yan would have to f***ing sprawl. Get him to sprawl and then fire off. Bring the knee up the middle, bring in kicks, setting up your combos off your shots. If he was able to do that, he could have won this fight."

Dvalishvili tried 58 takedowns at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on 24 October, a UFC record for one fight, and landed five. He won the first two rounds on all three judges' cards, but Yan took the decision 48-47 on all three to keep the bantamweight title.

That makes 18 takedowns landed from 136 attempts across the three fights with Yan: 11 of 49 in his win in March 2023, 2 of 29 at UFC 323 last December and 5 of 58 at UFC 333.

Paddy Pimblett questioned the value of big takedown counts while watching the fight. "When like Merab, he's got like 25 takedowns in one fight. That just shows that your opponent's got up 24 times," he said.

Dvalishvili is back on 14 November, when he wrestles Marlon Moraes under freestyle rules at RAF Abu Dhabi, in the same building where he lost to Yan.

READ NEXTMerab Dvalishvili to wrestle Marlon Moraes, who badly hurt him in 2021, at RAF Abu DhabiRead the next story →

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