Back in early January, Merab Dvalishvili showed up at Syndicate MMA in Las Vegas to kick off the new year in a foul mood. He was training for a fight with Umar Nurmagomedov, an undefeated and particularly “disrespectful” contender from Dagestan’s royal family, and it had been a disjointed camp. The gym was closed for parts of the holidays, which made it difficult to keep a schedule.
He’d missed Christmas already, and he’d be training right through his birthday on Jan. 10, unable to really celebrate. To make matters worse, with his fight occurring at UFC 311 on Jan. 18, he’d also miss out on the Georgian holidays that month, and it certainly didn’t help that he was surreptitiously dealing with a staph infection on his leg.
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“It was lots of pain,” he’d say later on.
At the time, though, what he said was something different. When I visited him that day in January, he said the situation sucked, and he was particularly upset that he was making all the sacrifices just so Nurmagomedov wouldn’t have to fight during Ramadan.
“So now I’m fighting whenever he likes, and I’m coming back, like a quick turnaround, even though I was injured, and I’m still dealing with some injuries, yet I’m coming, but he’s still trying everything to disrespect me,” Dvalishvili said then. “Even he’s still mentioning, ‘Oh, I won’t be surprised if Merab pull out.’ And I’ve never pull out. But he’s still mentioning the disrespect, you know? So like, why? Just give me respect, bro. Because I earned it.”
If you’d have declared then — at that moment, on Jan. 3, 2025 — that Merab would defend his title a record four times in 2025, you’d have been laughed out of Sin City.
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“Yeah, this has been really crazy year,” Dvalishvili told Uncrowned this week, reflecting on how 2025 started against where it’s ended up. “Exactly like that time — I was not showing no one that I was hurt. I have a big scar in my shin, and I had infection and [Nurmagomedov] was disrespect me on the internet — or his manager tweeting something, making post — and yeah, that was a hard time.
“But now we’re here and, you know, I love fighting. I love to be busy, and as long it’s respectful opponents, I love fighting and I want the same for next year. I want to be busy again and I’m going to continue.”
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These are historic times for Dvalishvili, who is doing remarkable things in the nascent sport of MMA. No champion has ever defended a UFC title four times in a year, yet that’s what Merab’s trying to do at UFC 323 on Saturday — to keep the bantamweight title in his possession to close out 2025 in a rematch with Petr Yan. He has essentially cleaned out his own division, which means he’s now going back over the bantamweight showroom with a white glove to make sure everything is spotless.
That’s because Dvalishvili already beat Yan in March 2023, back before he was the 135-pound champ. He didn’t just beat the Russian, either — he dominated the action, doubling Yan up in strikes (147-75), scoring 11 takedowns and racking up nearly seven minutes of control time on the former champ. It was one-way traffic the whole way.
With three wins in a row, it’s Yan’s turn again to attempt what no man has done since Ricky Simon in 2018 — which is figure out how to beat “The Machine.” Everyone who has tried this year has failed. Nurmagomedov got to observe Ramadan, yet he did so with a black eye and a broken hand. Cory Sandhagen had a plan to be aggressive with Merab and not be as reactive to the inevitable onslaught, yet he ended up losing four of five rounds at UFC 320 in October. Sean O’Malley, whom Dvalishvili took the belt from last fall at UFC 306, couldn’t make it past the third round in the rematch this past June despite sweeping lifestyle changes.
Petr Yan did not enjoy his first fight with Merab Dvalishvili.
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“Merab’s a motherf***er,” O’Malley told Joe Rogan after the north-south choke that did him in. It was meant as the highest compliment.
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Not a lot of people like Yan’s chances the second time through, either, including Dvalishvili himself.
“I saw he has some good takedown tricks, and he takes it down and it can be tough,” he said when asked if Yan looks improved since the last time, perhaps making polite conversation. “But yeah, so, he is a good fighter, tough fighter. Everybody knows. He beat Deiveson Figueiredo, Song Yadong and Marcus McGhee, which is good and impressive winning streak. So that says something.”
What Merab’s saying to the weight class is that he is a champion of historic record. In some ways, it’s like he is balancing out the weight class’s lack of activity from Dominick Cruz’s reign, back when Cruz couldn’t stay healthy enough to compete. It’s not so much that he’s defending the title in the green Wikipedian sense, it’s that he’s rendering the most dangerous men in his proximity helpless against his dervish pace, which never wanes.
Upon hearing the absurd story of him sparring five rounds the same day as his defense against Cory Sandhagen in Vegas, I asked him straight up if he ever gets tired.
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“After the fight? No,” he said. “In the fight? Also no. Because I work hard and then I work hard more. The fight is easy and that’s why I don’t get tired in the fight.”
Game plans, it can be said, have nothing on such focused simplicity.
It seems that everyone is scheming on how to beat the mighty Merab, yet Merab just shows up and does what he does. That is, he rag-dolls some unfortunate soul to the breaking point, which is where he derives his greatest sense of satisfaction. Merab enjoys it so much that he even lamented submitting O’Malley rather than torturing him further through the championship rounds. It’s not just that he wants to fight as often as possible, he’d prefer the fights themselves go on until he gets his fill.
Sean O’Malley also did not enjoy his latest fight with Merab Dvalishvili.
(Elsa via Getty Images)
If it seems that Merab is where game plans go to die, it’s odd to think that he occasionally comes up with one for himself.
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“Sometimes, like first O’Malley fight, I have a game plan,” he said. “Against Jose Aldo I have a game plan, too, how to beat him, stuff like this. But now against Petr Yan, I’m just going to fight my fight, and then I believe I can win.”
After the rough start to 2025, it’s one hell of a testament to Merab’s will that he is finishing 2025 the way he is. Four title defenses in year is unprecedented, as champions tend to slow down once the belt falls into their possession. Sometimes scheduling is complicated. You have religious observations, injuries, money snags and fighter preferences. Sometimes, as is going on with Ilia Topuria, there are personal issues that get in the way of competing.
Not with Merab, who this year has fought through all of it. He came in with a nasty infection on his leg, yet went out and beat Umar Nurmagomedov anyway. And he’s ending 2025 by allowing a guy he beat badly the first time another crack at his belt. As the old proverb goes, history favors the bold.
As for next year? Well, what do you expect from a man who calls himself “The Machine”?
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“In 2026, I want to be busy and realistic,” he said. “Comeback will be in March and yeah, after March, maybe in June.”
Here he thinks for just a second, perhaps wrestling with the word “realistic.” As with all things he wrestles, he makes that word bend to his will.
“And yeah, after June, two more fights end of the year.”
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