Merab Dvalishvili proved why he is an unstoppable force in the bantamweight division by handing Umar Nurmagomedov his first career loss at UFC 311. After witnessing the clinical performance, former champion Daniel Cormier is so impressed that he believes if Merab is “up and walking,” he will continue to press his opponent in the octagon. The one and only way to win against the bantamweight champ is to put him to sleep, added DC.
“It seems like the only way to beat him, is by completely shutting out the lights…What he does is every second of the fight, he is just attacking your will. Till you eventually start going, ‘man do I really have what I have to have in order to get through this dude’?” said Cormier on the latest episode of his weekly podcast with Ben Askren.
Interestingly, the last time Merab tasted defeat was via a finish, submitting to Ricky Simon back in 2018. Since then, he has been on an absolute tear, racking up an incredible 12-fight win streak.
Along the way, he has defeated some of the best in the game, including Jose Aldo, Petr Yan, Henry Cejudo, and Sean O’Malley.
His fight against Umar was no different from the other fights he has won. His opponents, including Umar, have been technically superior fighters and have often rained down an ungodly amount of offense on him.
Never forget that Merab completely embarrassed Petr Yan pic.twitter.com/2LlCc70vdS
— Jay♂️ (@JayMMA4) August 30, 2023
For the first three rounds, Umar looked like he was in it if not completely dominating. But Merab persisted, launching periodic offenses, the frequency of which only increased in the championship rounds. Umar could hardly summon any power in his shots by this time.
Merab now hopes to fight in March or April, possibly against O’Malley in a rematch. This was teased by UFC President Dana White.
Dana White implies Sean O’Malley is fighting the winner of Merab vs Umar.
Talk about systematically ruining the sport. He got dominated by Merab & never truly defended the belt & he’s getting a title shot? (Vera was a fake title defense) pic.twitter.com/1Kd24lZWsI
— MMA Joey (@MMAJOEYC) January 15, 2025
However, his teammate and former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling doesn’t see a point in the Merab-O’Malley bout.
Sterling has no faith in O’Malley’s skills
Sterling pointed out that Dvalishvili completely dominated O’Malley with his grappling and relentless takedowns, cruising to a unanimous decision victory at UFC: Noche last September.
Indeed, O’Malley didn’t look as sharp as he normally does with his striking and aggression against Merab, probably due to his hip injury. He has since had surgery and is on his way to a complete recovery. He had even claimed that he would be laying off social media to properly focus on the rematch with the title at stake.
However, Sterling believes even if O’Malley does his very best to focus and prepare, there’s very little he could do differently for a machine like Merab.
“In my opinion, it’s a hard fight to sell. You’re not selling me that O’Malley does anything differently other than hoping to catch him once in 25 minutes,” said Sterling.
Aljo on a potential Merab x O’Malley rematch. pic.twitter.com/EjDqgva4E6
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) January 21, 2025
O’Malley could always heed Cormier’s advice and land that one punch and put Merab on the slab. But doing that while moving backward and countering takedowns will be daunting, if not impossible.
Take Yan’s fight with Merab in 2023, for instance. Yan is an explosive striker, with a far better ground game than O’Malley. And he managed to counter 38 of Merab’s takedowns. But he still got taken down 11 times during the fight. That’s the kind of relentless pressure Merab is capable of inflicting on his opponents.
And, in all likelihood, O’Malley would face a similar load on him if the rematch actualizes.
