Aljamain Sterling reveals Merab fakes a body
shot so well, people actually think he’s hurt. 😅🎥 @funkmasterMMA
pic.twitter.com/RFMOAMstkN— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA)
June 2, 2025
Watch out for some new tricks from Merab
Dvalishvili at UFC
316.
Dvalishvili looks to defend his bantamweight title in a rematch
against Sean O’Malley at UFC 316 on Saturday at the Prudential
Center in Newark, New Jersey. Longtime friend and teammate Aljamain
Sterling recently revealed that “The Machine” is extremely good
at acting hurt from body shots. Dvalishvili’s acting was so
convincing that his sparring partner and Sterling both became
concerned during one training session. However, as the partner
approached Dvalishvili, probably with his guard down, the
bantamweight champ unleashed his hands and started laughing.
“We’ll hit Merab to the body, and he’ll fake that he’s hurt,”
Sterling said on “The Weekly Scraps” podcast. “And he’ll sell it —
he’ll sell it so good. I remember the first time I had seen him
doing it, he pretended he was hurt and made a face and then the
partner came ran after him. And then he just [starts hitting back]
and starts laughing.”
Dvalishvili subsequently revealed that he learned the trick from
the master of playing possum, Derrick
Lewis.
“I haven’t done this in long time but I was doing [it] in sparring…
Because I learned from Derrick
Lewis,” Dvalishvili said.
Known for comeback wins, Lewis’s possum game is so strong that it’s
sometimes difficult to tell if he was actually hurt. “The Black
Beast” has knocked out Curtis
Blaydes, Alexander
Volkov and Travis
Browne moments after he appeared to be compromised.