UFC analyst defends Merab Dvalishvili's warmup excuse for loss to Petr Yan

Chael Sonnen believes Merab Dvalishvili being impacted by an unexpectedly short warmup is a valid excuse for his performance at UFC 323.

Dvalishvili (21-5 MMA, 14-3 UFC) lost his bantamweight title to Petr Yan in their rematch last Saturday in Las Vegas. Dvalishvili's training partner, Aljamain Sterling, revealed that Dvalishvili's warmup was cut short when the flyweight title fight between Alexandre Pantoja and Joshua Van ended just in 26 seconds after the Brazilian injured his arm.

Both Daniel Cormier and Sonnen understand where Dvalishvili's team is coming from.

"Merab didn't get the warmup that he wanted," Cormier said on his "Good Guy/Bad Guy" show with Chael Sonnen. "He said they were thinking to themselves as soon as Brandon Moreno's fight was over, they would start to warm up. They'll start getting ready. But then the Joshua Van-Pantoja fight went as it went, and so they ended up going much sooner than they expected to. Many people will say it's just an excuse, but if you don't get to warm up the correct way before a fight, it has all kinds of impact not only physically, but emotionally."

Sonnen can relate to Dvalishvili, and used boxing legend Mike Tyson as an example of a fighter who made sure that situation never happened to him.

"I fully agree," Sonnen said. "I mean, in the world of excuse making, this one's going to go right over people's heads, and they're not really going to understand, so maybe you and I that have been in locker rooms can try and illustrate this, but it's a big deal. You will visualize every night from the day you sign that contract, every meal that you have, you're wondering what your opponent is eating. Every practice you're at, you're wondering how hard he's training. But you're thinking about that night, you're thinking about Bruce Buffer, you're thinking about that walkout song, you're thinking about the crowd maybe cheering you, maybe booing you.

"I only share for you when that gets disrupted, at the last second it starts to weigh on you. Now whether it should or not can be another conversation. In the sport of boxing, Mike Tyson specifically would put in his contract the time that he would leave the locker room, and it was a big deal. Sometimes you'd be watching a boxing event, the co-main event gets over and you go, 'Are they going to bring this main event out?' What a lot of people don't know is the champion many times will put in his contract when he leaves the locker room just for that very reason."

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Analyst finds Merab Dvalishvili's excuse for UFC 323 loss valid