UFC in review: Petr Yan solves Merab Dvalishvili dilemma, Joshua Van's rise and what next for Alex Pereira?

UFC 323 was supposed to be the icing on the cake for mixed martial arts' two outstanding champions of 2025. Merab Dvalishvili, defending his UFC bantamweight belt for the fourth time this calendar year; Alexandre Pantoja, the flyweight phenom being hyped as the division's GOAT.

Both would leave T-Mobile dethroned, battered, bruised, and, in Pantoja's case, wondering if he will ever scale those same heights again. He will be hoping that the old adage of what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas rings true.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. December 7 was meant to be a coronation of the two standout fighters of the past 12 months and more. What followed turned the MMA world on its head.

Both arrived as undisputed champions, the main and co-main events. Both were building legacies, the best in the business. Dvalishvili had begun the year with a gusty win over Umar Nurmagomedov before tapping out former champ Sean O'Malley in their rematch.

Cory Sandhagen was dominated in October, a fight in which the Georgian grappler surpassed Georges St-Pierre's record for most takedowns in UFC history and most successful bantamweight title defences (three).

Pantoja followed up his strangulation of cross-promotion star Kai Asakura last December with the suffocation of Kai Kara-France in June. "The Cannibal" was devouring his opponents with relish.

Plenty had asked how you solve the Dvalishvili dilemma and the Pantoja problem. The answers, it turns out, are a perfect Petr Yan and a freak injury.

Yan had vowed to be better than his first meeting with Dvalishvili two years ago and the Russian was as good as his word. Consummate boxing, outstanding takedown defence and devastating body shots saw him take a unanimous decision.

The sight of Dvalishvili so busted up and clueless as to how to penetrate Yan's defence hardly undone all his other good work of 2025, but also kind of did.

For Pantoja, giving the up-and-coming Joshua Van his shot at glory so early in his career was commendable but came at a cost. The Brazilian threw a high kick, which was blocked and grabbed by Van, who then pushed him down to the mat.

Pantoja's natural instinct to extend his left arm to protect his fall –something he has probably done a thousand times in his career – proved to be the wrong one