Making a change in result seems quite unlikely, but after rewatching the first fight and looking at the statistics, Yan lost but he was competitive. Honestly I at no point did Yan appear to be in trouble of getting stopped. IMO Yan has had 2 years to work on adjustments, look at film and has the access to world class grapplers in Russia to train with. I honestly think it’s possible for Yan to dethrone Merab.
Firstly Pete needs to double up strikes which was the most glaring differentiation in stats. Although Merab throws more at a much lower land percentage, it’s a bad visual with the judges. Merab had about a dozen TD’s and 6:00 minutes of control time, almost half of those TD’s were actually when Peter initiated the clinch or grappling and was reversed, that’s an easy fix. Yan shouldn’t be initiating the TD or clinch unless it’s to keep just to Merab honest or at the end of a very end of a close round that a TD would clinch.
Yan obviously needs to get started early, he’s already been 25 minutes in the cage with Merab, if it’s a decision winning early rounds before the cardio fades is huge. Peyoder ideally would better use the jab to dictate distance, the longer Yan can keep Merab at mid-kicking range should slow the pace, throw more volume with feints, last fight he didn’t get off enough and was waiting too much. Best defense is more offense to a point. Additionally unless early on Yan figures the low kicks are going to be a game changer, throw less, especially naked kicks to avoid Merab’s high single, make them count. Hands, body - head and finish sequence with a low kick or a knee if the shot comes, Merabs TD’s aren’t great its the result of his relentless chain wrestling and cage stalling.
Yan seemed to adopt a modified high guard, thus he should have been getting his shots off in quicker succession, problem was Merab would shoot or throw and walk him down, Peter need to punish Merab when shot comes with knees, a shovel punch or uppercut, instead backing strait up turtled in high guard. He needs to use angles on his exit, make it harder for Merab to get hands on him
Most importantly he needs to keep Merab on his back foot as much as possible, make him uncomfortable, don’t let him get in rhythm or else he will dictate pace and realistically that’s an extremely difficult fight to win as we all saw the first time around, Yan needs 3 rounds and to survive, and new…
However if Yan goes in without adjustments, allows Merab sets the pace early, again Yan loses a decision within the exception of a punchers chance.
healthly merab fucks him up form round one
