Mario Bautista on the “perfect gameplan” that saw Petr Yan regain gold at UFC 323

Mario Bautista recently weighed in on Petr Yan’s upset win that saw him regain 135-pound gold from Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 323. Speaking with James Lynch of Inside Fighting, the surging bantamweight contender touched upon Yan’s incredibly dominant underdog win over the Georgian native that saw the Russian tie up their series at one win apiece.

As the ranked UFC contender discussed the changing of the guard discussed the changing of the guard at the top of his division, Bautista said,

“I had the same thoughts that everyone else did, I thought Merab was going to go in there and just handle him for all five rounds like Merab usually does. But [Petr] Yan went in there with a perfect gameplan. Wrestled him up, defended the shots well, hurt Merab, and actually went to the body.”

“I’ve been saying that in a lot of these interviews like, you need to go the body on Merab. That’s exactly what Yan did and you can tell it does hurt Merab. So I thought it was great fight. It was a good mix up for the division. We’ll see if their rematch is on the way but it was a really exciting fight.”

Mario Bautista and his next assignment inside the UFC octagon

Mario Bautista finds himself in a big bout for his next outing as he is set to headline a UFC Fight Night card in February. Bautista will take on Vinicius Oliveira on February 7th in Las Vegas at the UFC Apex. This will be the first instance for both combatants headlining a UFC card during their respective promotional tenures.

Bautista versus Oliveira will pit the number nine contender against the number twelve 135-pounder in the promotion. The 32-year-old was announced for this headlining attraction against Oliveira during a live UFC broadcast for the Brandon Royval vs. Manel Kape FN card after news of the bout was initially reported by Ag. Fight.

Mario Bautista aims to rebound from his UFC 321 defeat to former title challenger Umar Nurmagomedov after previously riding an eight-fight winning streak that included wins over the legendary Jose Aldo and former Bellator MMA champion Patchy Mix. The Nevada native looks to derail Oliveira’s momentum here, with Bautista facing someone with a spotless UFC ledger who is also riding a six-fight winning streak overall.