Aljamain Sterling shares controversial take on Merab Dvalishvili’s UFC 323 loss

Aljamain Sterling won’t find too many people who agree with his UFC 323 take.

In the UFC 323 main event, Merab Dvalishvili put the UFC Bantamweight Championship on the line against Petr Yan. The bout didn’t go the way many envisioned, as Yan thwarted the grappling of “The Machine.” He was also able to pepper his opponent on the feet on his way to a unanimous decision win.

Sterling took to his YouTube channel to share his belief that Dvalishvili won the fight by securing the first three rounds (via MMAFighting).

“I will say in real time, I thought it was possibly us winning the first three rounds even though I knew that they were close, I just thought we edged it out,” Sterling said. “Especially the fourth round, I knew Yan won that round, and then obviously as the fight’s going, Round 5, we knew [Yan] was starting to get the better of that round, so I figured it would be 3-2 us. But it ended up being 4-1 and 3-2 for Yan, which 3-2 I’m not super mad about. The 4-1 was kind of like, it always makes me wonder what the hell am I watching if I had it 3-2? I don’t know.

“Close fight. Yan, he did great, can’t really say anything about it. I do think Merab didn’t quite look himself, but I want to make sure I’m giving respect and props to Yan for the things that he also did well. So it could have been a little bit of both. A little bit of a bad night and also one guy was just on another level that night.”

Dvalishvili’s 2025 remains one of the best years a UFC champion has ever had. Many believe “The Machine” is still a strong candidate to win “Fighter of the Year” thanks to his three successful title defenses against Umar Nurmagomedov, Sean O’Malley, and Cory Sandhagen.