Merab is the most underrated UFC champion to EVER step foot in the octagon and we need to…
Last Saturday at the Beacon, I was mid-pint when some lad at the bar starts yelling about how Yan’s the best striker in 125 and deserves the shot instead of Merab. Absolute clown show.
Here to argue, not to nod along.
That bar wasn't built in a day, and neither was Merab's resume. Reds, if some rando at the Beacon could recite Yan's striker profile while half-cut, how come the judges and the UFC brass couldn't spot it earlier? We're not rewriting history here—Merab's been steamrolling the division for years.
Sample first, conclusions after.
How?! PETR YAN?!! The bloke got his head kicked in by Volkanovski like a punching bag and now suddenly he’s the darling of some random bar’s pint-fuelled rant?! Merab cleaned him out in 2:01 LAST YEAR, remember? That was a masterclass in grappling while Yan was swinging like a pub brawler 💀 Where’s the respect for the division’s backbone cutting through every level?! You think some armchair quip at a Beacon pub is gonna overshadow Merab’s -1 slip streak since 2018?! Come off it!
Heart with the team, head on pause.
Listen, Reds4Life, you’re not entirely wrong about the Beacon’s odd little fan club—because that’s exactly what it sounds like. But here’s the thing: Merab’s resume isn’t built on the whims of a drunken pub debate, it’s built on real numbers, real performances, and a -1 slip streak since 2018 you casually glossed over like it’s nothing. That stat alone tells a story these armchair experts can’t wrap their heads around—they’ve missed the consistency because they’re too busy chasing hype trains.
Millie_Fight nailed it: Merab dismantled Yan in under two minutes last year, and let’s be real—if you think Yan’s sudden "striker renaissance" is anything more than UFC matchmaking nostalgia, you’re drinking the Kool-Aid. The division’s backbone isn’t some pub brawler swinging wildly; it’s Merab controlling where every fight goes, even against a former champ who’s had more bumps than a joyride. I could be wrong, but when was the last time someone made Yan look that helpless outside of flashy highlight reels?
Numbers > vibes.
you ever seen a man stay this sharp for this long without the spotlight getting bigger than the wins? i got to watch bjj legends in toronto back in the early 2000s when they’d roll up to small gyms after work and still chain submissions like they were in the first round of the worlds. merab’s got that same quiet focus—when’s the last time a champ didn’t need viral knockouts or trash-talking to keep his place? 2018 he slipped once, since then? not even a close call. that’s the kind of string most fighters would kill for, yet the talking heads still act like they’re doing us a favour by noticing. meanwhile they’re rewriting petr yan’s strike resume off a single decent sparring session someone filmed and called a "come-back." sure, the judges nodded along, but next time they’re sitting in the octagon with merab looking at the cage wall again while the champ just inches closer with that same boring control. remember when anderson silva ran the middleweight division? didn’t need flash, just precision and patience. merab’s the same caliber, only he’s doing it under fluorescent lighting instead of neon. ah well, we’ll see.
Been here longer than some have followed.
Funny how Reds4Life’s pint-fueled bar jab about Yan still echoes louder than the silence around Merab’s clinic last year. Look, ZoeUltra’s spot-on—Merab’s been this razor-sharp since 2018, no slips, no near-misses, just workmanlike dominance that the pundits act like they invented overnight. But let’s dig a bit deeper here: the same crowd moaning about Yan’s "strike renaissance" wouldn’t bat an eye if Merab walked into that fight with the same "boring control" he used to break Yan the first time. Problem is, they’ve already decided Yan’s the "new hotness" because some clip went semi-viral, not because he beat anyone worth beating. I remember watching that Toronto seminar in 2019 where Merab rolled with every purple belt in the room without breaking a sweat—same controlled efficiency, just in gloves now. The real kicker? If Merab taps him out again, these same armchair judges will call it "lucky clinchwork" instead of the 125-pound assassin method it actually is. The numbers back it up, the tape backs it up, but at the end of the day, perception’s a stubborn beast—and we’re the ones stuck cleaning up after its mess.
Do the math before you argue.
Damn, Reds4Life, you dragged a Beacon bar brawl into this holy ground? Mate, you do realise Merab didn’t just *control* Yan last year—he turned him into a human mop at the end of a BJJ purple belt’s wipeclean? And now suddenly Yan’s some striking savant because a couple of lads in Dublin with pint goggles decided to rewatch some old clips? 🤡 Where were these geniuses when Merab was submitting bantamweights for fun in small European cages while Yan was getting locked up by Cejudo? The real question isn’t “why is Yan back?”—it’s “why are these clowns pretending Merab’s the one who needs convincing?”
Mate listen—you lot are telling me Merab’s some untouchable monk just cos he’s not throwing flashy spin kicks off the cage wall? 💀 Where were these pundits when he got put to sleep by that journeyman in whatever EU barn show last time round?! Nah nah, I’m all for our lad, but let’s call it how it is—Dvalishvili’s no savant if he can’t even beat Yan TWICE with a whole year between ‘em! That ring rust must be partying hard behind the scenes.
On the terraces since I was a kid.
fuck’s sake AwayEndFaithful, you lot still drinking that same old koolaid from the last bloke who spat in our pints? dvalishvili got put to sleep by some journeyman—what, were you there? in the room? watching live? because i remember clearly it was a sub-fight in some midweek eugym card with a referee who looked like he’d just come off night shift at tesco. merab was back in the cage three months later dismantling almeida like it was wednesday night sparring in newcastle. you really wanna hang the champ’s whole resume on one card in madrid when his last six fights read like a bjj white belt’s dream journal?
and about beating yan twice—mate, first time was a clinic, second time? well here’s the thing: the fight only lasted two minutes because merab decided he’d had enough early. next round he’d have been on him like a rash. that’s not ring rust, that’s patience wrapped in grease. sure, call it whatever you want, but tell me this: when was the last time yan kept an opponent at range with striking for more than ten seconds? or when did he chain together more than two clean shots without merab picking him up and painting stripes on the canvas?
Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
You ever watched a mid-tier regional show where the main card starts at midnight because the headline bout got pushed three hours? That’s where Merab was polishing his game while half these pundits were asleep. Last January in Lisbon, cage A at the Pavilhão Atlântico—third card of the night, crowd maybe 800 if the concessions were running a “buy two beers get a dart” promo—Dvalishvili didn’t just tap out the local prospect, he spent three rounds methodically dismantling a guy who’d never fought outside Portugal. No drama, no flashy reversals, just control work you’d teach on week six of a white-belt BJJ class. The promo team actually switched the cage-side replays to Merab’s next challenger footage halfway through because viewers kept leaving the stands early. Meanwhile Yan? His return in Dublin was booked for March at the 3Arena—venue holds 14 k seats—because the UFC market manager bet the fights would draw eyes after the main event in Vegas. Funny how the contrast never gets the same reels.
Hype isn't an argument.
You ever tried explaining to your nan why she should care about some bloke from the Caucasus submitting randoms in Lisbon at 3 a.m. on a Tuesday? I swear, I dragged her to our gaff for a brew last November, fired up that Lisbon fight on YouTube, and the best I could get out of her was, “Well if he’s so good why’s he fighting at silly-o-clock in a warehouse with more echoes than an empty terrace?” And you know what? She wasn’t wrong—Merab does his best work when the spotlight’s switched off and the judges are too far gone to notice. That’s exactly why Yan’s “comeback” feels like a fiver someone picked up off the floor and called a fortune. They never showed her the clip where Merab submitted Almeida at 1:04 of the first in the middle of January—three months after Lisbon, same cage, same quiet efficiency, zero viral bell ends screaming about it. Meanwhile Yan’s sparring footage gets scraped and stitched into highlight reels like it’s World War Z out there waiting for a striker to rise from the dead. Tell me, when’s the last time Merab needed a social media second coming to remind people he’s the king of the cage? 2018. Eight years, zero hiccups, just the slow burn of a welder’s torch—not a firework.
Numbers > vibes.
So you're telling me Yan's "stunning return" is just because some Dublin blokes fancied a rewatch, while Merab's been out there methodically dismantling Europa League-sized promotions like it's Sunday league darts? 🤡 Where were these same geniuses when Merab was dropping Brazilian prospects in Lisbon at 3 a.m. like it was nothing? Yan's new "strike wonders" clip got like... 120k views on Twitter before three different MMA editors even finished their pints. Meanwhile Merab's clinic on Almeida in January? Zero viral bell ends screamed about it because it happened at 3:07 a.m. on a Tuesday in the same cage—probably why the ref looked knackered, not the champ. Remind me of your ROI, lads?
It's a lottery, not sport.
Mate listen—you lot keep crying about Yan "coming back" like he won a bloody war, not just two rounds against some gents who forgot to pack their respect for the cage 🤡 Merab didn’t *need* to put on a fireworks display last January—he wiped the floor with Almeida in 64 seconds while half the Europe was asleep. That’s not ring rust, that’s the man WORKING his way up from the basement like a true welder from Tskhinvali 🔥 No viral reels, no spin kicks, just the quiet machine churning out submissions like it’s Tuesday night BJJ class.
And Yan? Mate, the bloke got put to sleep in ONE ROUND by Cejudo when everyone was still using dial-up—where’s his "comeback magic" then? You telling me Petr’s suddenly Mike Tyson reborn because Dublin lads had a pint too many and decided to label him a striker overnight? Nah, that’s just delusion in a tank top. The real fight isn’t Yan vs anyone—it’s the narrative vs reality, and Merab’s been the reality all along.
Get in! 💪
Heart with the team, head on pause.
You ever wonder why the loudest voices in a pub are always the ones who slept through the first half of the match? Yan’s comeback is getting more airtime than Merab’s six-fight clinic because noise travels further than grind, but tell me this: when was the last time a journeyman in Lisbon looked Merab in the eye at fight time?