UFC star Merab Dvalishvili knows the pressure is on at UFC 333 when he takes on Petr Yan for the third time – but it certainly doesn’t feel like he’s going to let that get to him.

Merab Dvalishvili is one of the most intriguing fighters of his generation in mixed martial arts, and even that may be an understatement. He has been able to achieve some remarkable things throughout the course of his career but after losing the UFC bantamweight championship to Petr Yan, many wonder whether or not his decline has begun.

That may be an extreme way of looking at things, but for Merab Dvalishvili, failure is so rarely an option in his world. Yan had the better game plan and executed it to perfection back at UFC 323, but there is no guarantee that he will be able to do the same again this time around.

In a recent interview, Merab Dvalishvili had the following to say about the mistakes he made in the rematch and what he expects to go down in December.

Merab Dvalishvili wants to correct his mistakes at UFC 333

“I think the second fight I was fighting his fight,” Dvalishvili said. “I was in front of him and then exchanged the boxing, but this time I will just be myself. I think I’ll be much sharper and I know I can beat this guy. He hits hard, he is good, he’s shown, so it’s going to be a good fight. I’m excited.”

Merab went on to talk about the current state of the bantamweight division and what the future holds.

“Division keeps going,” Dvalishvili said. “I love this. You have a lot of good guys like Raul Rosas. I’m friends with him, he’s a cool guy, very strong. There are lots of young, tough fighters in this division.

“Now we have a new contender, Song Yadong, I’m not going to say he gives me chills, but he makes me excited because he hits hard. He really hits like a truck and I want to test that.”

Quotes via MMA Fighting

Given how enthralling the rematch was to watch, we can only imagine what kind of fire both men are going to bring to the third encounter. Yan will be feeling confident given how it played out last time, but you can never count out the cardio king, especially when this is probably one of the only things he’s been thinking about since he lost the belt.