On the night of September 14-15, a large-scale UFC 306 tournament will take place in Las Vegas (USA). The main event of the evening will be the reigning bantamweight champion of the league, Sean O’Malley, and the contender. The number one ranked Merab Dvalishvili will fight in the ring for the belt.
Dvalishvili’s path to a title fight turned out to be quite long. The 33-year-old Georgian fighter has been practicing mixed martial arts since 2014, and Merab’s career did not start in the best way. His professional path began in various American leagues, and in his first three fights, Dvalishvili suffered two defeats: a split decision from Darren Mime and a unanimous decision from Ricky Bandejas. But this did not break Dvalishvili, he then won six victories in a row and finished in the UFC with a record of 7-2.
Merab’s path in the world’s best league also began with two losses – to Frankie Saenz by split decision and to Ricky Simon by guillotine. It seemed that the journey to the UFC for Dvalishvili was almost complete, but Simon’s loss in 2018 was his last to date. Merab really restarted his career and went on a 10-fight winning streak. Surprisingly, only such a powerful streak allowed Dvalishvili to get a title shot. By the way, if it weren’t for his friendship with former UFC champion Aljamain Sterling, then perhaps Merab would have fought for the title a long time ago, but he refused to share the octagon with Aljo and was forced to wait until he moved up to featherweight.
Online broadcast of the upcoming tournament:
Live
UFC 306: O’Malley will score a spectacular knockout, Shevchenko will regain the championship title. LIVE
Interestingly, Dvalishvili, who was already a UFC fighter, managed to win a medal at the World Combat Sambo Championship. In 2019, he took second place in the category up to 68 kg, although in mixed martial arts he competes in the bantamweight category (up to 61.2 kg).
Today, Dvalishvili is the number one bantamweight with a record of 17-4 and 10-2 in the UFC, and this weekend he can become a full-fledged champion of the promotion. What’s so good about Merab? The Georgian athlete cannot be called brilliant, like, for example, the same Sean O’Malley. Perhaps Merab is the most pragmatic fighter in the division, and this makes it incredibly difficult to fight him. Dvalishvili has one strong side – his wrestling. Not even wrestling in general, but specifically takedown attempts. Combined with his phenomenal functional training, Dvalishvili becomes a real nightmare for his opponents. Remember his fight with Petr Yan, where the Georgian fighter set a UFC record? Merab made 49 takedown attempts – fantastic numbers. Yes, only 11 of them were successful, but 11 successful takedowns is a colossal indicator. And here you also need to understand that all these attempts, even unsuccessful ones, simply disrupt the opponents’ rhythm and ruin their fight plan. Merab’s opponents are always forced to maintain concentration and think that Dvalishvili is about to get to his feet.
Merab constantly finds himself in funny situations:
“This guy is making fun of me.” Dvalishvili is the main UFC meme
In a fight with the same Peter Yan, Dvalishvili literally tortured the Russian with constant leg passes, alternating them with feints and footwork. Yan defends himself quite well from takedowns; in other fights, even the same Aljamain Sterling had a hard time transferring the Russian. But Merab made it easy for him. It didn’t work; he tried again. 25 minutes at this pace – in this Dvalishvili is simply unique. By the way, Merab translated not only Ian, but also Olympic freestyle wrestling champion Henry Cejudo. And he didn’t just translate, but mocked the former two-time champion, literally dragging him around the cage.
Dvalishvili also added some good handwork to his fantastic performance. For example, with the same Yan Merab he demonstrated excellent boxing and even managed to almost completely close one of the Russian’s eyes, but Peter is one of the best strikers not only in his division. Merab still concentrates on wrestling in fights, but can also work on stand-up if necessary.
Merab Dvalishvili – Henry Cejudo
Photo: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
Dvalishvili is unlikely to try to show his striking skills in a fight with O’Malley – this is a utopia. Merab will follow the plan pragmatically. Yes, his fights, to put it mildly, are not the most interesting – out of 10 victories in the series, only one was early. But Dvalishvili is not ashamed of this, he continues to defeat his opponents and does it confidently. And Merab is already one step away from his old dream – next weekend he can become the new UFC champion and take revenge on the aggressor of his friend Aljamain Sterling.
