The highly anticipated trilogy match between UFC bantamweight stars Merab Dvalishvili and Petr Yan did not take place at the UFC’s historic White House event, and the reason comes down to the nationalities of the two athletes involved.
Dvalishvili, appearing as a guest on Daniel Cormier’s live show, revealed that the matchup was pulled from consideration for the White House card specifically because of where he and Yan are from. Dvalishvili is Georgian, and Yan is Russian, a combination that apparently raised concerns.
“They tell me, I don’t know what they tell him, but they tell us that our match is not happening at the White House because he’s from Russia and I’m from Georgia, and they tell us no White House,” Dvalishvili told Cormier.
The geopolitical tensions between Russia and Georgia, which have been strained since the 2008 war between the two nations, appear to have factored into the decision to keep the matchup off the prestigious event card.
Despite the venue setback, Dvalishvili confirmed the trilogy matchup is absolutely on the horizon. The two men have already traded victories, with Dvalishvili getting the better of Yan back in 2023 before Yan returned the favor in 2025. With the series now tied, a decider is inevitable.
“It’s a trilogy, yeah, happening,” Dvalishvili said confidently. “That’s 100% happening.”
As for the timing, Dvalishvili noted that Philadelphia in August has been floated as a possibility, though he indicated the timeline is largely dependent on Yan. “That I don’t know. That’s up to Petr,” he said.
During the conversation with Cormier, Dvalishvili also reflected on what went wrong in the rematch loss to Yan. He acknowledged that he went into that training camp working hard rather than working smart, leaving only two months between matches after his bout with Cory Sandhagen. He also pointed to strategic errors and the physical toll of doing five hard sparring rounds against top-level opponents on the same day.
“I beat him in 2023, and he beat me in 2025. Now we both know,” he said, suggesting a mutual respect and understanding has developed between the two athletes heading into what should be a definitive conclusion to their rivalry.
