It wasn’t necessarily evident during his performance in the
Octagon, but Merab
Dvalishvili endured his fair share of difficulties leading up
to his first bantamweight title defense.
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After relying on his relentless pace to pull away from Umar
Nurmagomedov for a unanimous decision triumph in the UFC 311
headliner at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles on Saturday night,
Dvalishvili revealed some of the ailments that limited his
training. While Nurmagomedov revealed that he might have broken his
hand in the opening stanza, “The Machine” claims to have dealt with
with plenty of adversity of his own.
“I broke my back in training camp and it was some days I cannot get
up from the bed,” Dvalishvili said at the post-fight press
conference. “I was laid down and I don’t have a training camp and I
don’t have a Khabib
Nurmagomedov to help me to train. Some days the [UFC
Performance Institute] was closed. It was Christmas and it was New
Year’s and weekends and it happened a couple of times Umar was
there and the security goes, ‘I’m sorry. We cannot let you go
in.’
“I’m not making this excuse. You’re a f—king fighter and you’ve got
to find a way to win. It might happen, maybe, I don’t know, but
after he disrespected me, he said so many bulls—t things. I don’t
know, as a fighter I respect him. God bless him, I wish him all the
best, but it’s a fight, but guess what? Who broke his hand?”
In an interview with Submission Radio, coach John Wood elaborated on the
aforementioned injury, revealing that Dvalishvili suffered a
pinched nerve in his back.
“The other day, UFC Embedded came by — or the [UFC Countdown] — and
he was out doing his workout in the street and jumped up the wrong
way and pinched a nerve,” Wood said. “[He] couldn’t walk for a week
… It was a complicated camp.”
That wasn’t all. Dvalishvili also suffered a cut on his leg that
eventually developed into a staph infection. Though it healed in
time for the fight, it was another concern because it hindered his
preparation.
“In November, I got big cuts on my leg,” Dvalishvili said. “This
just healed up Wednesday and closed, finally. It was big cuts, it
was taking so long to heal up, and then it gets infected, and then
every time somebody touch me and I was doing wrestling or kicking,
it was so painful. That was a challenge for this training
camp.”
However, withdrawing from the event was never a consideration.
“Then I had this fight and I’m laid down in my bed, I’m depressed,
I cannot go gym,” Dvalishvili said. “Umar Nurmagomedov is talking
trash, ‘Merab will pull out. I won’t be surprised if Merab pull
out.’ I’m like, ‘No! I’m not going to pull out.’ I never pull
out.”
Ultimately, the Georgian grappler put forth one of his most
impressive performances to date, outworking a favored opponent in
the championship rounds to secure his first successful title
defense. Dvalishvili’s winning streak now sits at 12, and 11 of
those triumphs have occurred at 135 pounds — a figure that is among
the most in UFC bantamweight history. With a resume that includes
triumphs over the likes of Nurmagomedov, Sean
O’Malley, Henry
Cejudo, Petr Yan and
Jose
Aldo, “The Machine” has bested some of the top talent the
division has to offer. He expects nothing different going
forward.
“I want to fight with the best guys in the division, like I always
do,” Dvalishvili said. “It excites me the next best challenge.
That’s what excites me – fighting the next best challenge. I think
I beat everybody in this division, so we’ll see who’s the next best
challenge.”
O’Malley, who relinquished his title to Dvalishvili at UFC 306, was
in attendance on Saturday night and has been mentioned as the next
potential challenger for the champion. If that’s the case,
Dvalishvili says he will be ready.
“Sean O’Malley was complaining about something, and he really has a
chance,” Dvalishvili said. “We know he can knock people out if he
lands on you. He has a big chance, so I see him as a challenge,
too. Maybe he makes some changes this time, and we go toe to toe
this time, and it will be a good fight.
“But I’m the champion now, and they have to call me out. I’m ready
to come back quick, as soon as UFC wants me to come back. I respect
the UFC’s decision now, and I will fight whoever will be next.”