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There’s likely to be plenty of blood in the UFC 333 co-main event.
Merab Dvalishvili gets his chance for redemption on Saturday, as his trilogy with Petr Yan co-headlines the event in Abu Dhabi.
The Georgian and Russian stars will collide for a third time at UFC 333 following one win apiece before two-time featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski defends against Movsar Evloev in the main event.
‘The Machine’ is confident about rectifying his mistakes from last December to have his hand raised and regain the bantamweight crown, but his team seemingly have one major concern.
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During his break between the Yan rematch and their upcoming trilogy, Dvalishvili suffered a badly broken nose.
The injury came during a training accident, but despite breaking his nose in two places, the Georgian star refused surgery to repair it.
Coach Ray Longo is worried that decision may backfire in a close fight against Yan this weekend, given how much Dvalishvili’s nose could bleed.
“He’s going to get hit in that nose and that nose looks like it’s going to bleed,” Longo said during a recent appearance on the Anik & Florian Podcast.
“He chose not to have it fixed before the fight. … I think optically, if it’s a close fight and he’s bleeding all over the place, who the hell knows?
“But I don’t think there’s anything we can do about that now,” he continued. “I think that’s going to be a little bit of a problem.
“As long as it doesn’t affect his breathing. That would be more what I would be concerned with. Can he do what he wants to do for 25 minutes? That’s where I’d be concerned.”
Dvalishvili exited the Octagon significantly worse for wear in his unanimous decision defeat to Yan 10 months ago.
The Russian champion will hope to repeat that damage en route to recording the first successful defense of his second bantamweight title reign.