The barricade gave way during Merab
Dvalishvili’s walkout at UFC 316 and he almost got crushed by the
fans before he even entered the octagon😳 pic.twitter.com/cI0H6I9MWK— FULL SEND MMA (@full_send_mma)
June 8, 2025
Merab
Dvalishvili’s coach, John Wood, was startled while walking his
fighter out at UFC
316.
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Dvalishvili put his bantamweight title on the line in a rematch
against Sean O’Malley at UFC 316 on Saturday at the Prudential
Center in Newark, New Jersey. Just as Dvalishvili was walking out,
a guardrail collapsed inches away from the champ. Wood revealed
that the barricade, which almost landed on their feet, fell over
along with fans who were probably leaning on it. The incident
seemed so severe that Wood initially was looking for bodies under
the barricade. However,
UFC CEO Dana White later revealed that nobody was harmed.
„We almost got crushed… I was s—-ing my pants,” Wood told Submission Radio. “Merab got pushed out of the way as
the thing was falling over, and it fell right in front of us, like
almost landed on our feet. It was like five fans broke the
barricade and fell over. I was looking for people being crushed
under the damn thing. It was nuts man. That was a holy s—t moment
for sure. That was freaky. By the grace of God, I don’t think
anybody was hurt.”
While Dvalishvili won the bantamweight title against O’Malley via
decision last year, he submitted “Suga” in the third round of their
rematch at UFC 316. The Georgian now rides a fourteen-fight winning
streak, which is tied for the fourth longest in UFC history.
Meanwhile, this isn’t the first time a guardrail has collapsed at a
UFC event. A similar incident occurred just as Mike Mallott was
walking out in front of a home crowd to fight Adam Fugitt
at UFC 289 in 2023 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British
Columbia, Canada.