Merab Dvalishvili appears to make the second protection of his bantamweight title when he faces Sean O’Malley in a rematch at UFC 316 however it seems he barely made it to his first protection again in January.
Following a dominant efficiency to finest O’Malley and take the title this previous September, Dvalishvili made a rapid turnaround to compete once more at UFC 311 when the promotion booked him towards rising star Umar Nurmagomedov. At his best possible, Dvalishvili had a tough process at hand contemplating Nurmagomedov’s pedigree and background in grappling seemingly gave him the very best likelihood to dethrone the Georgian champion.
Regardless of coming into the battle as an underdog, Dvalishvili pulled off certainly one of his largest wins thus far when he thwarted Nurmagomedov’s try at turning into champion, and he truly did it whereas at far lower than one hundred pc well being.
“I feel that Umar was going to be the hardest battle for Merab on the time,” Dvalishvili’s head coach John Wooden instructed MMA Combating. “I feel we’ll find yourself preventing him once more a while and similar factor, we beat them. They requested for the battle and [they came out] ‘Oh I’m injured, I’m this, I’m that.’ Effectively, Merab was half-dead for that battle.
“You don’t perceive, he had an open wound, he had a staph an infection, he was on every kind of antibiotics. I personally, if it was as much as me actually, and I haven’t actually instructed anyone, I in all probability would have pulled him out of the battle. I actually would have.”
That revelation places Dvalishvili’s efficiency beneath a fair brighter highlight contemplating he discovered a strategy to finally outwork Nurmagomedov and take over within the later rounds.
Whereas conditioning and the power to push the tempo for 25 consecutive minutes has all the time been certainly one of Dvalishvili’s largest weapons, his coach was understandably involved, particularly with the reigning bantamweight champion present process remedy for a staph an infection.
Research have proven that antibiotics “wreak havoc” on athletic efficiency, however Wooden admits he was shocked by Dvalishvili’s resolve to push ahead to make the battle towards Nurmagomedov occur on schedule.
“It was that dangerous however that dude that would barely stroll however then he goes spar 10 rounds and appears phenomenal,” Wooden mentioned. “So I knew he may do it. So I knew that within the room, I used to be like we’re going to win this battle however behind my head, I used to be like Jesus, he’s so banged up.”
Whereas he positively wasn’t at his finest when it comes to his bodily situation, Dvalishvili nonetheless placed on a classic efficiency and earned a unanimous determination win.
Afterwards, Nurmagomedov addressed his personal accidents — particularly a ugly damaged hand, which occurred in the course of the first spherical of the battle.
As a lot as Wooden sympathizes with any fighter coping with accidents, he can’t really feel too dangerous for Nurmagomedov whereas additionally figuring out the difficulties that Dvalishvili was dealing with within the leadup to that battle.
“The truth that Umar’s like ‘Oh, I’ve bought a busted hand.’ You guys requested for the battle,” Wooden mentioned. “We wished to battle in a while. We mentioned we’d battle you. You wished to take day off for Ramadan. In order that they pushed for it and took the battle.
“Then it’s ‘oh we’ve bought this [injury], we’ve bought that.’ No matter, it’s the identical factor. All people is all the time going to have these excuses.”
An analogous scenario occurred to Dvalishvili after he defeated O’Malley to win the title this previous September, and the all the time colourful former champion revealed afterwards that he was coping with a hip harm that prevented him from doing a lot grappling throughout his coaching camp.
O’Malley had surgical procedure to restore the harm, and he’s promised a a lot totally different efficiency when he faces Dvalishvili for a second time on June 7.
Irrespective of the outcome, Wooden guarantees that Dvalishvili is rarely going to supply up any form of excuse about why he received or misplaced a battle, and he doesn’t count on that to vary after his upcoming rematch towards O’Malley.
“I’ll let you know this, if Merab ever loses that belt, you’ll not hear excuses from him,” Wooden mentioned. “You’ll not hear ‘oh my leg was falling off, it was raining outdoors’ or no matter it’s they provide you with. Umar was a tricky battle. There was little question in my thoughts Merab was going to win that battle. The best way that Merab fights, what he brings to the desk is simply totally different. Folks don’t perceive it.
“That’s why this battle is form of intriguing as a result of Sean form of is aware of that now. Tim [Welch] is aware of that, they’ve form of felt that. What’s going to occur is that they’re going to have a superb spherical or possibly a superb spherical or two, however as soon as issues begin the identical means they did earlier than, it’s going to be much more defeating and deflating than it was the primary time. That’s the place it brings a unique form of matchup for us.”
Banged up, sick or injured, Wooden is aware of Dvailishvili is rarely going to draw back from a battle, and if the UFC would permit him to do it, he’d be probably the most energetic champion on the complete roster.
“He likes to battle,” Wooden mentioned. “He desires to battle three extra occasions after this if he can. If he may battle each different month, he would.”
