Merab Dvalishvili Explains Why He Would Never Consider Fighting Ilia Topuria

Merab Dvalishvili says he wouldn’t move up
to 145 lbs to fight Ilia Topuria, and says Ilia “destroys” him in
sparring

He also says he could potentially move down to flyweight, but
doubts he’ll ever challenge for a feathweight belt

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Merab
Dvalishvili has no plans of moving up to featherweight to
challenge Ilia
Topuria for the 145-pound title.

Dvalishvili gets his long-awaited gold bid at bantamweight against
Sean O’Malley in the main event at UFC
306 on Saturday at the Sphere in Las Vegas. “The Machine” will
get a chance to become the second Georgian to win a UFC title after
Topuria, who knocked out Alexander
Volkanovski to be crowned featherweight champ at UFC 298 this
past February.

O’Malley has consistently been plotting a move up to featherweight
to challenge Topuria for the title if he gets past Dvalishvili on
Saturday. However, Dvalishvili is comfortable in his current weight
class and has no such aspirations.

Speaking of a potential move up, Dvalishvili absolutely shut down
the idea of fighting his good friend. While Topuria is six years
younger than the 33-year-old Dvalishvili, “The Machine” likes him
due to his intelligence and good nature. Dvalishvili also admits to
being humbled by “El Matador” when they sparred.

While Dvalishvili isn’t opposed to idea of a move up to
featherweight for a few fights, he doubts he is ready for top-tier
competition at 145 pounds. The bantamweight contender would rather
consider moving down to flyweight in the future with a strict
diet.

“Never. I will never fight Ilia,” Dvalishvili said on the Pound 4
Pound podcast. “Firstly, he’s my brother. I really love him. He’s
really younger than me but he is smart and very good guy. Family
guy and a good friend of mine. Will never fight him. I did sparring
with him and he destroy me. He’s stronger than me. I’m not afraid
to fight but Ilia is my friend, Georgian, and I will never fight
him. And I’m very comfortable in my weight class here at 135
[pounds]. I don’t think I will go up and fight for the belt. It’s
not gonna happen. I can go fight some matchups, yes, I will. But to
fight against like [Alexander] Volkanovski, Max
Holloway, I’m not confident yet. Maybe someday if I started
diet, I can even go down 125 [pounds].”

Topuria is set to defend his title against former champ Max
Holloway in the main event at UFC 308
on Oct. 26 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Dvalishvili is riding a
10-fight winning streak, the longest in UFC bantamweight history,
with wins over the likes of Henry
Cejudo, Petr Yan and
Jose
Aldo.