Emotions run high in the chaos of a fight, especially when your fighter is getting his face bashed in. John Wood, head coach of former UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili, learned that the hard way. UFC 323 on December 6 delivered back-to-back shockers in its co-main and main events. Alexandre Pantoja lost his belt to Joshua Van after suffering a sudden arm injury, and Dvalishvili met a similarly brutal fate, albeit in a far bloodier and humiliating fashion.

After Petr Yan snapped Merab’s dominant streak with a decisive victory, former opponent Sean O’Malley highlighted a critical misstep from Wood in the corner. “Did you hear that? He told Merab you’re up three rounds,” O’Malley remarked on his podcast. Whether it was a genuine error or an attempt to steady Merab’s mindset, the advice was wrong from his coach. The judges’ scores—49-46, 49-46, and 48-47 for Yan—made that clear. Now, Wood appears to have owned up to the mistake.

Wood didn’t consider the most important aspect of the fight

Speaking to Submission Radio on December 8, Wood admitted he underestimated the damage Merab had absorbed by the third round. “I’m usually pretty objective and like I’m very aware of the way the fight’s directed,” he told Denis Shkuratov. “But maybe for me, I wasn’t taking the damage into consideration.” By that point, Yan had dominated the stand-up exchanges, splitting Merab’s head open and punishing him with heavy shots to the body.

Even on the ground, where Merab typically thrives, Yan had found more success. By the end, he stuffed 27 of Dvalishvili’s 29 takedown attempts while securing five of his own. How Wood overlooked those details remains puzzling. Still, he insisted he didn’t believe Merab was truly hurt, despite the Georgian letting out multiple loud screeches when Yan dug into his body. “The one thing I can say, maybe I got caught up in the fact that I know Merab, and he wasn’t hurting some of those things and those cuts and the blood and the stuff,” Wood added.

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“I do remember, and I do recall thinking that we had one and two [rounds], and I know three was close,” Wood told Shkuratov during the interview. “I only give four and five to him, hands down. I have to go back and rewatch it. But I do remember… I know everything was close, and it was a lot closer than I expected or thought it would be.” In the end, Yan accomplished what Merab’s last 14 opponents could not.

Still, Wood’s misjudgment may have influenced the outcome, potentially giving Merab false confidence that he was ahead on the scorecards and didn’t need to push harder in the championship rounds. As for Sean O’Malley, he appears to have aligned with Wood about what may have gone wrong. “It’s interesting being in the corner, like you see, you might see the fight differently. Maybe you’re saying it because you know your fighter better,” O’Malley said. 

Regardless of who was at fault, Merab Dvalishvili will have his opportunity to exact revenge. 

Merab Dvalishvili vs. Petr Yan III is on the way

Merab Dvalishvili has confirmed that a trilogy fight with Petr Yan is already in the works. According to him, the UFC has guaranteed it. “The UFC contacted me and said, ‘Please rest as long as you want. Your next fight is a rematch with Petr Yan for the belt. Rest as long as you want, and call us when you’re ready,’” the former champion said, speaking in a subtitled video shared by Bet25.

Despite losing the title at UFC 323, Dvalishvili insists he took no serious damage and wants to return quickly. “They probably want to do the fight in the summer, but I don’t want to wait until the summer,” he said. “I want to schedule the fight soon, maybe in the spring—April would be good—or maybe the fight can be scheduled in the summer.” Based solely on Merab’s words, Dvalishvili vs. Yan III is already on the way.

It’s hard to take a loss, but it’s even harder to accept a mistake. Now that John Wood has done that, he and Merab Dvalishvili can finally go back to the drawing board to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. If the third fight happens, who do you have winning?