While the UFC
306 headliner was largely a clear-cut victory for Merab
Dvalishvili, the bout also included a couple of unusual
moments.
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The first occurred early in Round 1, when referee Herb Dean
halted the bout to warn both Dvalishvili and Tim Welch for
their interactions during the fight. According to Dvalishvili,
Sean
O’Malley’s coach was trying to distract him from his cageside
position.
“I’m a professional fighter,” Dvalishvili said at the post-fight
press conference. “I’m focused and it never happens to me. I never
pay attention to other corner. But Tim’s voice was very familiar
because he was doing the same thing to [Aljamain
Sterling at UFC 292]. There’s the clip on social media
everybody saw that. He was doing the same thing. He was doing
already, disrespectful, ‘Merab, you’ve got to go.’
“He was talking s—t to me. I told him, ‘Stop it.’ Nobody was
telling him to stop. He just kept doing this. If you do the same
thing in basketball or soccer, they will do disqualification for
you. But I guess here, not. I told referee, ‘I’m sorry.’ … I said
I’m sorry and after I guess he stopped it.”
The second incident occurred toward the end of Round 2, when
Dvalishvili kissed O’Malley’s neck while attempting a rear-naked
choke. That nearly resulted in disaster when the Georgian released
his opponent before the horn, and O’Malley took the opportunity to
fire back with punches in the waning seconds of the round. For
Dvalishvili, it was all in good fun.
“I grabbed his neck and he had 10 seconds left. I know he can wait
and he’s not going to sleep or tap [to] this. I want to make just
little fun of him,” Dvalishvili said. “I don’t hate the guy, just
make fun of him. But at same time, give him a little kiss – to show
them that I’m dominating. I controlled this fight, break you.
That’s why I was kissing him. I had too much fun there and I guess
I looked at time control. But when I let go, he followed me and
punched me in the back of my head. I started to protect myself
again. I said [to the] referee again, ‘Referee, I’m sorry.’”
The fun continued for Dvalishvili for most of the bout, as he
wasn’t truly threatened until O’Malley hurt him with a front kick
to the body in the final stanza. However, it was a case of too
little, too late, as “The Machine” cruised to a unanimous decision
to capture the bantamweight belt.
“The first emotion was crazy I couldn’t control myself,”
Dvalishvili said. “When Dana White wrapped the belt around me and
then when I got up, I realized Dana was already left. I wanted to
shake his hand and feel it. Now, I realize. Now, I realize. It
feels great. I beat other guys, three former champions. Sean is
four. It’s a normal day – a normal day, but I have a belt today.
That’s it.”
Dvalishvili didn’t get much time to bask in the glow of his
victory, however. With top contender Umar Nurmagomedov in
attendance, Dvalishvili was forced to address the possibility of
facing the Dagestani in his first title defense.
“Umar, he’s OK,” Dvalishvili said. “But I’m telling you guys, from
the top 15, he only won one fight, and that was Cory
Sandhagen, and we all saw what Aljamain Sterling did against
Cory Sandhagen. Made him sleep in the first round.”