Miguel Class

After getting 50-45d less than three years ago, Petr Yan completely flipped the script and surprised everyone by dominating Merab Dvalishvili to regain his title. A commitment to his jab, stalwart takedown defense, and a renewed confidence all played pivotal roles in this all-time great performance.

Merab continues to all-time great run through the bantamweight elite by clearly besting one of the few contenders remaining. I was impressed with Sandhagen's resilience and ability to take a championship round against the Georgian with endless cardio, but ultimately he never found a way to seriously

I said in the picks article for The MMA Draw that I thought Merab was the fighter who had more room for improvement in the rematch, and that proved to be true. By not overly respecting O'Malley's counters and instead just getting after him, Merab was able to snowball his own offensive game sooner wh