Merab Dvalishvili’s coach has explained his controversial corner advice from UFC 323, where he suggested his fighter was leading three rounds to zero – only for Dvalishvili to lose on points.

Dvalishvili’s dominant bantamweight run came to an end on Saturday, as he suffered a decision loss to old foe Petr Yan, who became a two-time champion with the victory.

All three judges saw the bout in Yan’s favour, with scores of 49-46, 49-46 and 48-47. In fact, the latter scorecard was deemed somewhat controversial, with most fans believing that Yan’s masterful, well-rounded performance had won the Russian four rounds.

Yet John Wood, Dvalishvili’s coach, suggested to the “Machine” after three rounds that the Georgian was fully in control.

“I thought we were winning and controlling, and I thought we were pressing and doing what we needed to do,” Wood told MMA Fighting.

“Petr definitely had the bigger moments, and I think that shifted [the fight], and you just don’t know. There’s times where judges… they don’t care, you don’t get that, you don’t see that.

“But [Yan] had the bigger moments in those things and that really did account in the damage and the blood; those were the things that added up and took over.

“That was my bad for not having a little bit more control on the optics there of what we were doing.”

Indeed, while the first round was arguably Dvalishvili’s best, it was also notable for the 34-year-old suffering a bloodied face – damage that he would wear throughout the fight.

Yan, 31, ultimately emerged a unanimous-decision winner, regaining the undisputed belt that he had last held in 2021. In the process, he avenged a 2023 loss to Dvalishvili and ended his rival’s 14-fight win streak.

Still, Dvalishvili made history as the first UFC champion to attempt four title defences in one calendar year. Having won the belt in September 2024, he outpointed Umar Nurmagomedov this January, submitted Sean O’Malley in June, and outpointed Cory Sandhagen in October.

“A fight’s a fight,” Wood continued. “You just… Sometimes it doesn’t go the way you want it to go. It sucks. It’s like waking up from a nightmare.

“This doesn’t go away. I thought we had the right things going on in this camp, and it was a quick camp and it was a hard camp. There’s a lot of things that go on behind the scenes, but it was Petr’s night.”

However, Wood was not the only member of Dvalishvili’s team to have misinterpreted the scoring after three rounds. Aljamain Sterling, who previously beat Yan in two title fights, also believed his teammate was on track for victory.

“I will say, in real time, I thought it was possibly us winning the first three rounds,” Sterling said on his YouTube channel. “Even though I knew that they were close, I just thought we edged it out.

“The fourth round, I knew Yan won that round, and then obviously as the fight’s going… Round five, 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.”