UFC Champ Merab Dvalishvili Rejects Fighting Against Alexander Volkanovski Out of ‘Love and Respect’

With his successful title defense against Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311, bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili proved that he had something natural that no amount of training would match up against. And now with only a few opponents left in the division for him to face, one wonders if the Georgian would pursue a champ-champ status. And truth be told, Merab might, but he just can’t see himself fighting Alexander Volkanovski.

At 135 lbs, Merab has but two weight classes to trade himself to. It’s either go down to 125 and fight for flyweight, which would mean stricter weight cuts and a sacrifice of his endurance.

Or he could move up to featherweight, where he won’t have to cut too much and face the winner of Volkanovski vs Diego Lopes at UFC 314 later this year.

If Lopes wins, Merab is happy to make the tour upstairs and have a go at the featherweight champion. But if ‘Volk’ regains his title, Merab has a good enough reason not to chase him.

“It’s nothing like I don’t want to take a risk, or it’s nothing like I’m scared or something”, he said. “But I just have so much respect, I just don’t want to fight Alexander Volkanovski.”, the bantamweight champion added. 

 

While some fans might be disappointed that a potential dream fight between these two warriors won’t happen, ‘The Machine’ is laser-focused on dominating the bantamweight division right now.

Sure, he has pretty much fought and defeated the who’s who of the division on his way to a title, but there’s still quite a way to go before he can claim to have cleaned out the division.

Deiveson Figueiredo and Petr Yan are still in the mix, and Umar will no doubt make the climb to the top again. Then there’s ex-champ Sean O’Malley, who would be looking to take the title that Merab won off of him at UFC Noche in September last year.

A Bantamweight Blockbuster in the Making

While an official announcement hasn’t been made, Dana White’s comments at the UFC Seattle post-fight press conference made it clear that both fighters are interested in running it back—and the UFC sees it as a must-see showdown for fans.

Explaining that it didn’t matter why some analysts thought the fight didn’t make sense, White said, “They want to fight each other, and I think people want to see it.”

‘Suga’ got outclassed and dominated by Merab for 5 rounds straight, so how can fans expect the rematch to be different?

Well, O’Malley claims he was nursing a hip injury going into the fight, for which he even got surgery shortly after and is now recovering from. If that is the case, it meant we got to see a subpar ‘Sugar’ in the octagon.

Hopefully, he can return this time around and show everyone why he was once a must-see champion. Whether or not the lack of injury would be of any consequence against a grappler of Merab’s class, that is another matter altogether.