Merab Regains 19 Pounds in Five Hours — Yan's UFC 333 Test Just Got Wilder
GOATIFYMerab Dvalishvili made the UFC bantamweight championship limit on Friday morning. Five hours later, the former champion said he was already 19 pounds heavier. Ahead of his UFC 333 trilogy with Petr Yan in Abu Dhabi, the numbers have become a fight-week story of their own.
Dvalishvili officially weighed 135 pounds for Saturday's title fight. In a video he shared after rehydrating, he stepped onto another scale and reported 154 pounds. That is a remarkable change over a short period, but it is not a prediction of what he will weigh when the cage door closes, much less proof that he will overpower Yan. It is a window into the extreme management of body mass that can precede a five-round MMA contest.
Yan, who also weighed 135 pounds, enters as champion after beating Dvalishvili in December 2025. Their rivalry is tied at one win apiece. The decisive questions are whether Merab has recovered from his cut, whether his wrestling pace can disrupt Yan's boxing and whether the Georgian can turn an eye-catching weigh-in statistic into an actual performance.
The 135-to-154-pound swing — and what was actually measured
The first number is official: Dvalishvili registered 135 pounds at the UFC 333 weigh-in in Abu Dhabi on October 23. The second comes from the fighter's own video, filmed roughly five hours later. After drinking fluids, he stood on a scale and said it read 154 pounds. The reported difference is 19 pounds, or about 8.6 kilograms, representing approximately 14 percent of his official weigh-in mass.
Those measurements describe two moments, not a complete account of his weight-cut process. The first was taken on the promotion's official scale under event conditions. The later figure was shown in a personal video and has not been independently reproduced on the same equipment. Clothing, scale calibration and timing can all affect comparisons at the margins. None of those caveats erases the size of the reported change; they simply keep the conclusion appropriately narrow.
Dvalishvili was upbeat about the rebound, explaining that he had been drinking and was preparing to eat. The rapid turnaround became a talking point because the bantamweight limit is far below what many fighters weigh outside competition. In a title bout there is no extra one-pound allowance: the champion and challenger must each hit the contracted 135-pound ceiling. Both men did, so the championship fight remains intact.
The scale episode also added another layer to Dvalishvili's lively fight-week persona. He has repeatedly used humor and provocation in exchanges with Yan, and his post-weigh-in comments continued that pattern. Yet the more revealing part is not the joke. It is that a competitor preparing for a potentially grueling 25 minutes had a substantial recovery task between Friday morning and Saturday's opening bell.
Why rapid rehydration is not automatically a fighting advantage
A fighter who appears considerably heavier after weigh-ins has not gained 19 pounds of new muscle. Much of a rapid rebound following a cut can reflect restoration of fluid and other short-term body mass. Fighters commonly reduce water and food intake to make a weight limit, then work to restore hydration and energy before competition. The amount regained says something about the size of the swing; it does not, by itself, tell us how well the body has recovered.
That distinction matters especially for Dvalishvili, whose signature weapon is sustained activity. He wins exchanges by chaining takedown attempts, pressing opponents against the fence, forcing scrambles and making them defend repeatedly. A fighter built around that style needs more than a favorable number on a scale. Timing, coordination, cardiovascular endurance and the ability to recover between rounds all matter. A large change in mass is not a substitute for those qualities.
Nor can Friday's reading establish an advantage over Yan. The champion made the same 135-pound limit, but his later weight was not reported in the same way. Comparing Dvalishvili's home-scale reading to Yan's official weigh-in would therefore mix different time points. There is also no reliable way to translate the 19-pound figure into a prediction of takedown success or punching power.
Weight cutting carries genuine physical considerations, including the possibility that a rushed or incomplete recovery leaves an athlete less prepared than expected. Those concerns should not be converted into a diagnosis of Dvalishvili. He looked energetic in public appearances, and he has extensive experience competing at this weight. The practical test will be the fight itself: can he sustain the repeated bursts of effort that made him a champion while dealing with Yan's counters and body attacks?
Yan already found a way to break the rhythm in their last meeting
The trilogy exists because these fighters have produced two very different outcomes. In March 2023, Dvalishvili overwhelmed Yan over five rounds, winning 50–45 on all three judges' cards. His repeated entries, relentless pace and constant pressure kept Yan from establishing the striking exchanges he wanted. It was a demonstration of how exhausting Merab's approach can become when an opponent spends most of the night reacting.
December 2025 turned that story around. Yan won a unanimous decision at UFC 323, with scores of 49–46, 49–46 and 48–47, and took back the bantamweight championship. His boxing was cleaner, his body work was damaging and his takedown defense blunted many of Dvalishvili's usual routes into prolonged grappling exchanges. The rematch was not decided by one spectacular strike. Yan made better choices, more consistently, across the fight.
Dvalishvili has acknowledged that his schedule was a factor in how he prepared for that contest. The December bout followed an exceptionally busy title-defense stretch, and he has since had roughly ten months away from competition. That longer interval offered time to reset and build a different camp. It does not guarantee that the tactical problems exposed by Yan have disappeared, but it gives the challenger a chance to address them without immediately returning from another exhausting championship outing.
For Yan, the objective is to repeat the defensive discipline of the second fight without assuming Merab will present exactly the same entries. Dvalishvili can change the timing of his shots, use combinations to disguise his wrestling or attack the clinch from different angles. Yan can answer with footwork, compact counters and body attacks that punish a forward-moving opponent. Their first two results make this more than a story about who wants it more: both have already demonstrated a winning approach, and each now knows what the other can do.
Saturday's real test is five rounds, not five hours
UFC 333 takes place Saturday, October 24, at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Yan and Dvalishvili contest the bantamweight title in the co-main event, while featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski defends against undefeated Movsar Evloev in the headliner. The main card begins at 2 p.m. Eastern in the United States, with the early preliminaries starting four hours earlier. For European viewers, the unusual schedule places the main card in the evening rather than the middle of the night.
At 135 pounds on Friday, both bantamweights satisfied the most basic requirement. On Saturday, the more complicated examination begins. Dvalishvili will want to dictate where exchanges occur, force Yan to work along the fence and build enough wrestling volume to wear down the champion. Yan will want to maintain a clean stance, make Merab pay for predictable entries and keep the fight in the ranges where his boxing and body shots can accumulate.
Watch the first two rounds for the clearest clues. If Dvalishvili is reaching the hips, connecting his hands and forcing prolonged scrambles, his recovery and preparation may be supporting the style he needs. If Yan is stuffing early attempts and making Merab reset after every entry, the champion may be rebuilding the pattern that won him the rematch. Neither scenario is definitive in the opening minutes, but each can shape the workload that follows.
The reported 154-pound reading will likely remain part of the conversation regardless of the outcome. It is a striking statistic, not a scorecard. The trilogy will be decided by positioning, execution, damage, pace and judges' evaluation if it goes the distance. Dvalishvili's rapid rebound adds intrigue to the lead-up; his ability to impose himself against a familiar opponent will determine whether it becomes a meaningful part of the story afterward.
Dvalishvili's five-hour rebound offers a rare public glimpse at the gap between a championship weigh-in and the athlete who ultimately steps into the cage. He says he went from 135 to 154 pounds before Friday was over. Yan made the same official limit, and both men now face the much harder task of solving an opponent who has already beaten them once.
That is what makes UFC 333's bantamweight trilogy compelling. Merab has a full camp, renewed energy and a wrestling game built to overwhelm. Yan has the belt and a proven tactical blueprint. The scale created the headline. Their next 25 minutes will decide its significance.
