Legendary boxing trainer Teddy Atlas weighed in on the UFC 333 main event trilogy bout between bantamweight champion Petr Yan and former titleholder Merab Dvalishvili. The fight, like their first two, went the distance. Yan won via unanimous decision with all three judges scoring the fight exactly he same, 48-47.
Some people, including fighters, felt Dvalishvili’s hand should have been raised. Atlas wasn’t one of them. He not only believes the judges got it right, he didn’t think the fight was difficult to score.
“I thought it was one of the easier fights to score. Call me crazy. I don’t care,” Atlas said on THE FIGHT with Teddy Atlas. “I had the first two rounds for Merab and the next three to the champ, Yan. And when he had to be the champ, he was a champ. I could leave it with that. That could be my analysis. I can leave it with that. I’ll go a little more, but I can leave it with two things.
“He hurt him again in the body. He was looking for that because that’s what really separated him in the first fight. I mean the second fight. I’m sorry. This is a trilogy. The second fight, the last fight. He gave Merab a beating.”
The second thing Atlas attributed to leading to Yan’s victory was the Russian’s tenacity and champion determination.
“When the championship rounds, whatever you want to call it, but when it came time to say, “I want to keep my title. I’m not giving up my title. I am champion!” When it came time to do that, he did that. That’s what took over the fight. That’s when he took over the fight,” he said.
