Merab shrugs off Yan's trash talk: 'Doesn't bother me anymore'

The Georgian says he's done trading words with Petr Yan before UFC 333 — he'll settle it in the cage on Saturday night in Abu Dhabi.

Petr Yan keeps talking. Merab Dvalishvili has stopped listening.

The Georgian told MMA Fighting this week that Yan's trash talk, the constant interruptions at the pre-UFC 333 press conference, all of it, does nothing to him now.

"He talks shit, and this doesn't bother me anymore," Dvalishvili said. "I think I grew up as a person, as a fighter, [and] you know me, I'm just a respectful guy."

This was not always Merab. The man who brawled his way through 14 straight wins used to fly off the handle at anyone who disrespected him, fighters and fans alike. He admits it. He says an online backlash a couple of months ago, some of it from fellow Georgians after he gave his opinion on a politician, taught him life is too short to be angry.

So when Yan talked trash across the table and kept cutting him off, Merab didn't fire back. He didn't lose his cool. He stayed totally respectful and let the champion perform.

Yan, for his part, insists he wasn't being rude, just "being real." On The Ariel Helwani Show he said he told Dvalishvili to shut up when he "started making things up," and claimed Merab acknowledged being humbled and broken in the second round of their rematch.

Merab has no interest in litigating any of it on a microphone. His plan is simpler.

"Make weight and then show up Oct. 24 and do my job, and then I will answer, in the fight, his questions," he said. "I'll be winner, and then he will be humble."

This is a trilogy, and the scoreboard says everything about why the words are flying. Dvalishvili won their first meeting in March 2023. Yan won the rematch at UFC 323 last December, snapping that 14-fight winning streak to become a two-time bantamweight champion. One apiece, no ambiguity.

Saturday's decider is the co-main event at UFC 333, at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, with the undisputed bantamweight title on the line. Alexander Volkanovski vs. Movsar Evloev tops the card, but the trilogy is the fight everyone will be watching.

Yan thinks he has Merab figured out. Merab thinks talking is over. On Saturday night, one of them is right.