Much like Alex Pereira and Alexandre Pantoja, Merab Dvalishvili is the latest UFC champion pledging to be active going forward as the bullish bantamweight titleholder heads into 2025 with an unbeaten contender – 18-0 pro Umar Nurmagomedov – expected to emerge in another passing-of-the-torch moment from their UFC 311 co-main event next month. Well, don’t tell the Georgian that.
Dvalishvili: I just want to be busy, clean the 135lb division
Merab Dvalishvili (c) vs. Umar Nurmagomedov [2] for UFC bantamweight title
UFC 311 co-main event to Islam Makhachev vs. Arman Tsarukyan 2
January 18 live from California’s Intuit Dome, United States
- REWIND! Merab’s first words as champ: “I feel like I’m in a dream! I was focused step-by-step, not thinking about the belt… just to beat O’Malley – I know he’s good but just made him look normal. Dana found me in looking for a fight, I’m living my dream, inspiring so many people in my country and others – was a construction worker – you have to respect everyone.”
- Dvalishvili told the UFC he wants to stay active, cited O’Malley rematch and matchup against former titleholder Petr Yan [2] as options he wants to pursue next year as Georgian looks to clean out bantamweight division
MERAB Dvalishvili seeks to make up for lost time atop the bantamweights, assuming he gets past upcoming unbeaten challenger Umar Nurmagomedov (18-0) to kick off a busy 2025. Having emerged from the shadow of close friend and former titleholder Aljamain Sterling last year, the 33-year-old knows time is of the essence.
For one, he’ll turn 34 on the eve of fight week for his maiden title defence four months removed from a career-best display to extinguish Sean O’Malley’s championship reign with precisely the sort of relentless dominance that made many tipping him for the top years prior, before the friendly logjam sidelined him at 135lbs.
Since a second-round win and performance bonus over Marlon Moraes on the UFC 266 prelims in September 2021, he has only fought four times.
To contextualise that inactivity, Sterling broke the record for most consecutive bantamweight title defences (3) with victories over Petr Yan, T.J. Dillashaw and Henry Cejudo before losing via second-round stoppage by Sean O’Malley in August 2023. He’s moved up, won his featherweight debut and had a title eliminator (vs. Movsar Evloev) set before Merab became the promotion’s 11th bantamweight kingpin.
UFC 304: Merab Dvalishvili UD5 Sean O’Malley
At the time, I wrote…
Sean O’Malley’s rising stardom took a hit in perhaps the worst way, as Merab overwhelmed him with a sense of inevitability many neutrals had feared would make this matchup as one-sided as it often proved when officially announced.
Despite being sternly warned by referee Herb Dean almost immediately into the fight for barking back-and-forth with O’Malley’s coach Tim Welch, the Georgian challenger wouldn’t let anything faze him on the biggest night of his career. Instead, he embraced the histrionics and played a pantomime villain role to perfection.
Bouncing plenty but being more measured with takedown entries in the early going, the 33-year-old’s first takedown came midway through a tentative opening stanza that could’ve gone either way. Little else did for the Suga Show on this evening.
A graphic flashed up on screen showing Dvalishvili was the third fighter in promotional history to reach 80 completed takedowns after Georges St-Pierre and Gleison Tibau and that rather foreshadowed a frustrating night’s work for the now-former champion.
Unhappy with the narrative he was avoiding Nurmagomedov, Dvalishvili has since changed his tune about someone he used to admire as an up-and-coming prospect.
During an UFC interview, he outlined a rather ambitious plan to take contenders apart to dismiss any doubts: “I’m fighting early this year and just want to be busy. I know O’Malley wants to come back in April, I think Petr [Yan] will be ready in March, so maybe fight Petr in March, rematch [O’Malley] in April and whoever will be the next contender (after that), I will take. I will clean the division again.”
O’Malley (torn labrum) believes he will return sooner than initially anticipated, with April being mooted as a possible month to target. The UFC have one pay-per-view event a month, with April 12 at Miami’s Kaseya Center too quick a turnaround to expect Dvalishvili back – especially considering the missteps leading to Sterling’s stunning knockout defeat at the back end of 2023. May or June is more likely.
First things first, it’s time to derail another hype train. O’Malley and his flashy striking skills are one thing, Umar has an inevitability (and esteemed coaching with Hall of Famer Khabib to boot) about him that makes the challenge even tougher for a new champion eager to maximise his growing star power at the peak of his powers.
Picture source: Getty Images, quotes hyperlinked
Mo and Sports 