UFC 323: Merab Dvalishvili vs. Petr Yan 2 picks and predictions
See who we think will win in Vegas this weekend.
UFC 323 is this weekend. The event will draw the curtain on the UFC’s 2025 season, as well as its ESPN deal and the PPV era (for those of you in the US). The event is decent enough, not as stacked as UFC 322, but still packed with plenty of fun and meaningful fights.
The main event has Merab Dvalishvili trying to make history in attempting to defend his UFC bantamweight title for a record fourth time in a calendar year. Petr Yan, who lost to him in 2023, is the man trying to play spoiler.
The co-main event has Alexandre Pantoja defending his UFC flyweight title against the upstart Joshua Van.
The main card also has Brandon Moreno vs. Tasturo Taira, Payton Talbott vs. Henry Cejudo and Jan Blachowicz vs. Bogdan Guskov.
The prelims are solid this weekend. Nazim Sadykhov vs. Fares Ziam, Terrance McKinney vs. Chris Duncan and Edson Barboza vs. Jalin Turner should all be very watchable.
We’ve done out best to go out with a bang this year, trying to pick all the winners on the card. When it comes to our leader board, I’m in pretty good shape. If I pick the right lock pick and don’t totally poop the bed with my picks, I should run out as the 2025 champ.
I did alright on the last card, but Steph did better going 12-6. We all hit our locks that week. Mine was Gregory Rodrigues over Roman Kopylov.
Scroll down to see who our locks are this time around (and all our other picks).
Leader board
Merab Dvalishvili (-410) vs. Petr Yan (+320)
Miguel: We have to be incredibly grateful for Merab being willing to defend his title for the fourth time this year, not only because we get to see the best division and the highest level of the sport more regularly in a time where the UFC is increasingly trying to sell us slop, but also because without the X-factor of Merab’s unusually active year there wouldn’t be much tension heading into his rematch with Petr Yan. We all saw how the first fight went and despite Yan having clawed his way back up to the top of the heap at bantamweight, fundamentally he’s still the same fighter, if not a little regressed from his absolute peak.