Is Merab Dvalishvili one win away from changing into the bantamweight division’s undisputed GOAT?
After delivering a dominant efficiency towards ‘Sugar’ Sean O’Malley in September, ‘The Machine’ will put his 135-pound title on the road for the primary time within the UFC 311 co-main occasion. Standing throughout from Dvalishvili would be the division’s No. 2 ranked contender, Umar Nurmagomedov.
The undefeated Dagestani scored his first title alternative by way of a lights-out efficiency towards Cory Sandhagen over the summer season.
It’s an extremely robust check for Dvalishvili’s first protection, but when he comes out on high, he’ll be the best bantamweight blended martial artist of all time. At the very least, that’s what his coach, John Wooden, believes.
“(If) Merab goes out and beats Umar, which I believe he will, I think there’s no question that he’s the bantamweight GOAT,” Wooden instructed Inside Combating. “And had all those guys that he beat been title defenses, it’s not even a question now. So I think we’re looking at the next bantamweight GOAT here shortly” (h/t MMA Junkie).
Although that is his first time defending the bantamweight belt, Dvalishvili has spent a lot of his profession bagging wins over noteworthy names in certainly one of MMA’s most stacked divisions. Over the previous few years, he’s overwhelmed Petr Yan, Henry Cejudo, Jose Aldo, and the aforementioned O’Malley.
Merab Dvalishvili locked in regardless of latest string of emotional outburts
Ever since his combat with Nurmagomedov was introduced, Dvalishvili has been uncharacteristically riled up, his largest gripe being that the Dagestani merely hasn’t completed sufficient to earn the place he’s in.
Whatever the Georgian’s latest antics, Wooden insists that the champ is locked in and motivated, simply as he was in his final three outings.
“He was motivated and emotional by Petr Yan,” Wooden stated. “He was motivated and emotional with Henry Cejudo at one level. He was motivated and emotional with O’Malley, so it’s no totally different. That’s a part of the method that we get into. He doesn’t must hate any person or be no matter to be motivated, but it surely’s a part of the method.
“He gets into the fight. He’s there to fight, he’s there to go out there and do battle with the person across the cage. This one, there’s been a little more emotion to it as far as he feels a little disrespected that he is the champion, and that there’s a lot of debate on whether Umar deserves the title shot.”
