Outside Source
Dvalishvili (21-5) lost his bantamweight title to Yan (20-5) at UFC 323 last weekend. While Dvalishvili slightly edged out the first round, Yan started landing more damage from the second round onwards and took over as the fight progressed. However, Wood told Dvalishvili that he was up three rounds when he returned to the corner with a busted nose at the end of the third round. Wood has since faced criticism for not giving his fighter a reality check.
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Wood recently explained why he told Dvalishvili that he was winning. While coaches sometimes try to boost their fighters’ morale by sounding optimistic, Wood genuinely thought Dvalishvili was winning. Wood thought Dvalishvili was pressing the action even though Yan landed the more damaging shots. Wood plans to score the rounds more objectively in the future.
Hindsight’s 20/20
“At the time, I thought Merab was busier, doing more pressing,” Wood said on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “But looking back now, Petr had the bigger moments. He was landing the bigger strikes, getting the bigger reactions and doing the real damage. The bleeding, the blood always plays into a lot of stuff. From everything I’ve said, a lot of people thought that was the wrong call. In the moment, we all thought we were the ones pressing the action… It’s something I definitely need to fix in making sure that I’m looking at it objectively.”
John Wood breaks down why he thought Merab was up 3–0 at the time😬
“At the time, I thought Merab was busier and doing more pressing. But looking back now, Petr had the bigger moments. He was landing the bigger shots, getting the bigger reactions, and doing the real damage.”… pic.twitter.com/NdUybDHxvu
— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA) December 9, 2025
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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