Dvalishvili Vows Return After UFC 333 Trilogy Loss

Former UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili has broken his social media silence after dropping the trilogy to Petr Yan at UFC 333.

Yan defeated Dvalishvili by unanimous decision last Saturday to close out their rivalry. The loss marked back-to-back defeats for Dvalishvili against Yan, who also took the bantamweight title from him at UFC 323 last year. Before the consecutive setbacks, Dvalishvili beat Cory Sandhagen, Sean O'Malley twice, and Umar Nurmagomedov during his championship run.

In an Instagram post shared Sunday, Dvalishvili thanked God, his cornermen, training partners in Las Vegas and New York, the UFC, and his fans. "I cannot wait to be back in that cage doing what I love to do!" he wrote, per BJPenn.com. "I am healthy and motivated and will be back soon! This Machine never breaks! See you all soon."

Dvalishvili sits in an awkward spot in the bantamweight rankings with two straight losses to the current champion. The Georgian has previously mentioned a potential drop to flyweight, particularly during teammate Aljamain Sterling's title reign at 135 pounds.

A return fight against another top-five contender appears most likely if Dvalishvili stays at bantamweight.