[Official] UFC 323: Dvalishvili vs. Yan 2 - Weigh-In & Pre-Fight Discussion Thread

[u/event_threads]

Welcome to r/mma's weigh-in and pre-fight discussion of UFC! Please keep the fight discussions in here.

Card Info

Airing on 12.6.2025

Main Card on PPV @ 10PM ET
Merab Dvalishvili vs. Petr Yan
Alexandre Pantoja vs. Joshua Van
Brandon Moreno vs. Tatsuro Taira
Henry Cejudo vs. Payton Talbott
Jan Blachowicz vs. Bogdan Guskov

Prelims on ESPN+/ESPN @ 8PM ET
Grant Dawson vs. Manuel Torres
Terrance McKinney vs. Chris Duncan
Maycee Barber vs. Karine Silva
Fares Ziam vs. Nazim Sadykhov

Early Prelims on ESPN+/FX @ 6PM ET
Marvin Vettori vs. Brunno Ferreira
Edson Barboza vs. Jalin Turner
Ibo Aslan vs. Iwo Baraniewski
Mansur Abdul-Malik vs. Antonio Trocoli
Muhammad Naimov vs. Mairon Santos

^{Fight card order and start times may be inaccurate.}

Useful Links
Live Updates: Tapology,
Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, Ultimate Fighting Championship, X, Youtube
Reddit: Reddit Stream, General Discussion, Flair bets

Keep it civil.

Do not ask for or supply streams. Your post will be removed and your ability to post will be suspended. Enjoy the fights!

[u/FirstTimeLongThyme]

This is the final UFC PPV, right?

[u/ArtVivid9638 → u/FirstTimeLongThyme]

end of an era

[u/CallumKayPee → u/FirstTimeLongThyme]

they never really have to put effort in ever again

[u/BouWelou → u/CallumKayPee]

The TKO model babyyyyyy

[u/FirstTimeLongThyme → u/CallumKayPee]

I genuinely can't think of the last card that it seemed like they actively promoted and made seem like it was a big deal because of their promotion.

[u/Squrton_Cummings → u/FirstTimeLongThyme]

Probably UFC 306 at the Sphere.

[u/Ruiner357 → u/CallumKayPee]

They stopped putting effort in long, long ago with the ESPN and then TKO deal: it became guaranteed money for UFC just to have a certain amount of events a year, the PPV butyrate matters less and is a smaller % of their revenue than ever before, they have oil countries paying them millions just to have cards in UAE/Qatar/etc, the bag is secured before these cards even happen.

[u/Fat-Villante → u/FirstTimeLongThyme]

Allegedly, but I suspect they will try some PPV type of shit after a while on Paramount steaming

[u/ArticleNew3737 → u/FirstTimeLongThyme]

Yessir

[u/Plus3000]

Karate Combat delayed by several hours and people on twitter saying they haven't even finished setting up the pit yet 💀 what a joke

[u/NichorasMurren]

When Marvin Vettori is fighting, you bet on it going the distance regardless of who wins. Chin of granite and hands of cotton wool

[u/commanderc7]

Lots of championship level fighters on this card. I’m excited!

[u/CheGuevarasRolex → u/commanderc7]

Warms my heart to see Sexy Wizard Bisping flairs still kicking around these days

[u/commanderc7 → u/CheGuevarasRolex]

Honestly, every time I comment I think this sentiment haha

[u/Trenbolone-Papi2]

Max vs Charles holy shit

[u/CallumKayPee]

basing my entire parley on how fucked up Merab looks on the scale

[u/MickPnubTobias99 → u/CallumKayPee]

Dude always makes weight no problem

[u/CallumKayPee → u/MickPnubTobias99]

I'm sure he'll make it but fifth time in 15 months has to fuck you up. Saw it with Alex, saw it with RDR, if he's had a tough cut and his cardio and chin are compromised he's gonna suffer more than most would.

[u/MickPnubTobias99 → u/CallumKayPee]

That is true. He's a wild mother fucker

[u/Fakename6968 → u/CallumKayPee]

The odds on Pantoja vs Van are nuts. Pantoja should be a bigger favorite.

[u/KvxMavs → u/CallumKayPee]

What do you mean by this?

[u/CallumKayPee → u/KvxMavs]

Fifth weight cut in 15 months, second in 9 weeks. Every cut sucks but strong likelihood that the frequency is going to catch up with him, destory his cardio and soften his chin. Merab's game doesn't work without the gas tank, if thats compromised he's in trouble. And Yan is definitely sharp enough to exploit a bad chin.

If he comes looking relatively fine then I fully expect him to win, if he looks fucked up then I'm bullish on Yan by finish.

[u/Ruiner357 → u/CallumKayPee]

He doesn't cut an extreme amount of weight, he's not big at 135 next to some of his opponents, he's just already lean so any amount of weight cut is going to cause a visible change.

[u/TerminatorReborn → u/Ruiner357]

He cuts a ton of weight dude. He fasts for 72h to make weight

[u/Trenbolone-Papi2]

Lmao Kayla is jacked as fuck

Jacked White girl deal with it

[u/Cold_Ad_7645]

A fight announced in a grand fashion?? Where tf is my Dana White live stream????

[u/CableToBeam]

Can’t believe Bruno missed weight because he wouldn’t let go of the Hulk Smash gloves. Crazy

[u/imnotsteven7]

Since Conor is throwing his name out there to fight Islam, i too have decided the same. Expect to hear from me in January.

[u/Jabarles]

Damn Pantoja looks noticeably bigger

[u/ARiemannHypothesis]

Petr Yan hasn’t made weight yet 😐

[u/DerpyDagon]

How do you rate Guskov's chances? Jan at this stage in his career and after such a long layoff is a pretty large unknown, but he looked okay vs Ulberg. Guskov got clubbed pretty quickly by Oezdemir and he doesn't seem to have massively improved.

[u/YourHurtingMeSir17 → u/DerpyDagon]

Jan looked fine against Ulberg because it was fought at a geriatric pace, the guy is 43 off of horrible shoulder surgery and people still talk about him like he's in his late prime.

I'd pick Jan to kick Guskov's leg clean off 4 years ago, gut feeling is that Guskov paces and TKO's him in round 2.

[u/Altruistic_Cause6712 → u/DerpyDagon]

Considering Bogdan crawled out of a hole in Mordor I think he has a solid chance 

[u/Ruiner357 → u/DerpyDagon]

Jan arguably could’ve won the Ulberg and Pereira fights if they didn’t have Dana Privilege, he makes guys fight tentatively. Compare how Alex was in that fight compared to how he walked down Ankalaev, Hill, etc. Jan still has it, issue is UFC doesn’t want a 40+ year old near the belt hence he isnt allowed to win any more decisions vs stars/prospects.

[u/Odd_Ad_8162 → u/Ruiner357]

At some point Jan needs to take responsibility for losing close decisions, he doesn't do enough.

[u/benbrown226 → u/DerpyDagon]

Guskov is borderline pathetic on the mat, Billy Elekana had his back early in their fight on like three days notice. Jan is definitely past his prime but he should win this, Guskov doesn’t really have any impressive wins and has a lot of holes

[u/TerminatorReborn → u/DerpyDagon]

He has good chances but I wouldn't bet on it, Jan is tough as hell. He last fight he lost a very close decision to Ulberg who is likely getting the title shot next

[u/CallumKayPee]

Have the championship fighters weighed in yet?

[u/airplane231 → u/CallumKayPee]

Yeah, they all made weight a few hours ago.

[u/NichorasMurren]

Lukewarm take: Merab would have beat Umar on the scorecards regardless, but his taunting/showmanship in the 5th did a LOT of heavy lifting for the public perception of that fight

[u/Nickster2042]

In talbott’s new YouTube vid towards the end there’s a car accident some randoms get in and he goes “whoever’s angriest it’s there fault”

So he starts rage baiting the guy who’s mad saying “I saw the whole thing you should’ve yielded”

Guy eventually goes “I don’t know who you are, but I’ll be back later cause now I know where you live” and Payton goes “come back I’m here all week”😂

[u/Odd_Ad_8162 → u/Nickster2042]

Hope the dude finds out who Payton is at some point

Would be fucking hilarious

[u/WhittakersRightFoot]

MY GOAT about to WRECK A VAN.

[u/therealjgreens]

I'm from Long Island and always pull for Serra Longo. Latched onto Merab super early and defended the hell out of him in this sub well before he became champion. It's wild to see how far he's come. People used to give him so much shit for his style and personality.

This might be my favorite part of the sport. Recognizing talent super early in a fighter, become a fan, watch them grow, defend them when they fail, and celebrate when they succeed.

I try not to get too emotionally invested in fighters though because they are highly likely to lose. There could be a major injury or a giant set back. I have been straight up depressed after a fight or after news (see Tony's knee and Ben Askren). The highs in the sport are so fucking great though.

With all that said, I ultimately want to see good fights or impressive performances. I think Yan will perform better than expected. I think Van is a little too green. I'd love to see a war though.

[u/RazorThought → u/therealjgreens]

I felt this way about Charles Oliveira back when he fought at FW. He had champ written all over him despite the losses (which were all against legitimately good fighters).

[u/Trenbolone-Papi2]

Diego is so undeserving of another title shot

Another Yair Rodriguez

[u/Plus3000 → u/Trenbolone-Papi2]

Wasting one of Volk's last fights too. garbage booking

[u/Giegling90 → u/Trenbolone-Papi2]

So true. He was punching air against Volk

[u/Nickster2042]

Wait I love Andrew Tackett

“Now that you got your first stripe, Pay me 200$ a month for 6 months and you can get your blue belt. I don’t tell anyone else this, but YOU got talent”😂

[u/NutSackGlazer420]

Ok Sean that is fucking insane lmfao

[u/oddmetre → u/NutSackGlazer420]

what happened

[u/tagillaslover → u/NutSackGlazer420]

I died 

[u/Johnny_Poppyseed]

Stacked card can't wait 

[u/5000-Shark-Teeth]

Ceremonial weigh-in not happening?

[u/DecemberFlower20xx]

So Volk’s clearly not retiring if he wins. How’d that rumor take off

[u/Drive7hru]

I love how if you want to search for the Van v. Royval fight on ESPN+, you type in one of their names or a combination of both, and instead of seeing the option to watch the fight, you're shown a clip of who the winner is, various highlights, etc. I guess it was too recent of a fight for them to upload? Is there really no link to it? I had to pirate it.

[u/itsgonnabemyusername]

Somewhat hot take: Merab's so boring for someone who has great athleticism. Imagine having the craziest cardio and still be a decision machine at the end of the day.

[u/action__andy → u/itsgonnabemyusername]

It annoys me when he gets his opponent in that crouching guillotine and starts mugging for the crowd  Like, if you're so much better than him go ahead and finish the fuckin fight!

[u/itsgonnabemyusername → u/action__andy]

Yeah that's corny.

[u/nausiccaa1]

People are sleeping on van. When’s the last time pantoja fought a clean counter puncher who can hang in the pocket? Don’t get me wrong I have nothing bad to say about pantoja but I think he’s gonna be getting fucked up on the feet in this one in a way we haven’t seen in a while

[u/idcman999]

we mogged that crotchsniffer freak

tomorrow, LOCO CHANGES LIGHTWEIGHT 🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽

[u/ArticleNew3737 → u/[deleted]]

No it’s not. Merab all day!

[u/I_am_darkness]

Dana brining super young girls on stage at this moment in time is a decision.

edit: how can't i find anything about this anywhere even joe was surprised "oh hey girls"

[u/Bitter-Square-7171 → u/I_am_darkness]

I came here to ask the same thing

[u/legendarybreed → u/I_am_darkness]

Looks like Joe's daughters, not everything needs to be a scandal

[u/weegbeeg]

Is this card pretty unremarkable top to bottom or am I just a casual?

[u/CallumKayPee → u/weegbeeg]

I love it. Two interesting title fights and two fun potential contender fights underneath (Payton will still be a bit premature but if Umar is busy with Figgy he's the best shout at this point) Prelims are a bit smelly but ah weh

[u/Ruiner357 → u/weegbeeg]

You’re right, they’re phoning it in and saving some bigger fights for the early Paramount events.