Fighting Concepts from 2025

Petr Yan, Khamzat Chimaev, Lerone Murphy, Carlos Prates, Jared Cannonier, Jon Jones, & Henry Armstrong

Contents:

Petr Yan Adapts his Strategy

UFC 319- Straight Line Advances and the Year of the Spinning Elbow

Phone-Booth Striking Mini-Study with Jared Cannonier

Petr Yan Adapts his Strategy

Petr Yan delivered the best performance of 2025 in a drubbing of Merab Dvalishvili. It seemed a hopeless effort for the former Bantamweight Champion. He had to overcome a stylistic nightmare which was illustrated in their first meeting: Merab Dvalishvili’s all cardio output was perfectly suited to outpace Petr Yan’s ability to ‘download the data’ in the early rounds of a fight, and Yan himself was coming off very impressive victories that only seemed to show him an elite operator that could not find consistent success at the absolute apex of the division. Mere seconds into the rematch did it become obvious how prepared Yan was to slay his personal boogeyman.

The Big Picture

Petr Yan, notorious for dropping the first round of almost every fight to acquire reads, came out strong on the front foot, pressing Merab Dvalishvili to the cage (V1). I have written extensively on Merab Dvalishvili the past year; his prolific body of work necessitated it. The approaches of his opponents held elements that could diffuse him but were rendered useless without coming together in a cohesive gameplan. In studying his championship run (and the Jose Aldo fight) the following stuck out as the most impactful ways to solve the Georgian:

1. Staying on the front foot. When you’re pressuring, he’s not. He also drops back and circles through large portions of his fight. He’s not a ‘come forward at all costs’ fighter like some see him as.

2. Feinting to punctuate the pressure and draw out his active jabs and left hook counters. This also competes with his own array of level change feints.

3. Attritive work to the legs and body to even out the cardio disparity he wins every fight with (the front kick being chief among the most effective)

4. Punishing his many (some half-hearted) takedown attempts with weapons up the middle (knees and uppercuts, best shown by Jose Aldo and Sean O’Malley in their first meeting).

Petr Yan was miraculously able to put all of this together in a performance for the ages. It was all made possible by being more aggressive. He’s more skilled than just about anyone and had the tools to beat Merab, he just needed to present Merab with questions earlier so the champion could not run away with the fight by the third. The strategy was set, so how did he tactically dismantle the impending bantamweight GOAT?

Petr Yan’s long guard was the basis for his success throughout the fight (V2). From a defensive perspective, it allowed Yan to hand fight (from both stances) by using a hand trap and cross hand trap to stifle Merab’s active jab, and stuffed hooks short as Yan backed out of range. Offensively it kept Merab aware of the jab threat while Yan’s arm stayed in range to simply step in with a small jab. One might look at this long, high guard and think ‘Isn’t that what allowed Merab to get takedowns in their first fight?’. It certainly helped, but that was before Yan incorporated his most impactful weapon of the fight: The Dipping Jab (V3).

I have a video coming out diving deep into Yan’s dipping jab in this fight as it was the cornerstone of his success.

1. The jab is a long range weapon that allowed Yan to mount consistent offense without falling behind Merab’s activity.

2. It can be thrown to both the body and head, slotting in as a more prolific attritive tool than the more seldom (but devastating) body work that came later.

3. Dipping with the jab brings Yan’s head off the center line, making it more difficult for Merab to jab WITH him

4. Dipping with the jab is key against wrestlers, as it brings the head and arms down for better head positioning, underhooks, and down blocks against takedown attempts.

Yan’s Dipping Jab was also a ‘sticky jab’ where instead of retracting his lead hand, he kept it on Merab’s head and was able to pull him into the clinch. Despite Merab’s lauded wrestling and judo, Yan was a step ahead in every clinch exchange (V4). Yan’s more active approach was integral to denying Merab his momentum but his usual strategy of ‘downloading the data’ to find his openings did not go away.

Yan established his dipping jab to stay ahead on the scorecards and took note of Merab’s habit to simply raise his high guard when met with offense. Yan ensured that Merab’s hands stayed high throughout the fight with his outstretched lead hand to induce the hand-fight. His constant pawing either brought out Merab’s own jab, or the high guard, opening up the avenue to attack the body by the third round (V5, V6). Yan had been winning prior, but investing in powerful body attacks cemented his lead. Merab has more than once shown the ability to secure the win after losing the first two rounds due to his cardio capabilities, but Yan’s investment in the body sapped Merab’s strength to the point where he could maintain his output while Merab tried in vain to find success.

Petr Yan was able to dismantle The Machine by starting with aggression, using the dipping jab as the perfect offensive and defensive counter to Merab’s weapons, and building on this foundation by attacking the body to take away his physical advantages. It was a spectacular performance, wonderfully entertaining, and the perfect way for Yan to live up to the ability everyone has known him to have.

V1- Yan Taking Initiative

V2- Long Guard

V3- Dipping Jab

V4- Innate TD Defense in Long Guard

V5- Naturally Opened Up Body Kicks

V6- Body Hook

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Little Things I Liked

Petr Yan’s improved strategic approach allowed his tactics to flourish, and when he’s having success he feels comfortable enough to open up with more creative sequences. The following were simply small, isolated moments that I loved in this fight, without necessarily being tied to his pattern of success.

V8- Slamming Merab on his head after he throws on a non-committal guillotine

V9- Pushes Off the Face to create space to punch after Merab attempts to clinch

V10

V11- Yan finding sneaky Punches Off a Perfect knee and a kick off the same side

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UFC 319- Straight Line Advances and the Year of the Spinning Elbow