Merab Dvalishvili rules out future move to featherweight, says Ilia Topuria "destroyed" him in sparring
Merab Dvalishvili recently ruled out a future move to featherweight and noted that it has a lot to do with his fellow countryman Ilia Topuria. He used their training sessions as an indicator and described what it's like sparring with the featherweight champion.
'The Machine' will attempt to follow in his countryman's footsteps tomorrow night when he challenges Sean O'Malley for the bantamweight championship in the main event of Noche UFC 306. It's been a long time coming for Dvalishvili as he has racked up wins over former champions including Jose Aldo, Petr Yan and most recently Henry Cejudo. With that in mind, it's common for fighters to express interest in achieving double-champ status, but the Georgian ruled out achieving that at 145 pounds.
During his appearance on Cejudo and Kamaru Usman's Pound 4 Pound podcast, 'The Machine' indicated that he will never agree to fight the reigning featherweight champion because of their close relationship. Dvalishvili mentioned that his sparring sessions against Topuria have been one-sided but noted that certain matchups at 145 pounds or even 125 pounds could be realistic:
"I''ve been sparring with [Topuria] and he destroyed me, you know, he's stronger than me...I'm very comfortable in my weight class here at 135 [pounds]. I don't think I will go up and fight for the belt, it's not gonna happen...Some matchups, yes, I will but to be title fight against a [Alexander] Volkanovski, Max Holloway, I'm not confident yet. Maybe some day...if I start a diet, I can even maybe go down [to] 125 [pounds]." [43:52 - 44:58]
Check out the full episode with Merab Dvalishvili below:
Merab Dvalishvili recounts fighting Henry Cejudo
In addition to discussing a potential future move to another weight-division, Merab Dvalishvili recounted what it was like fighting Henry Cejudo.
During the aforementioned appearance, Dvalishvili mentioned that he felt some nerves ahead of their UFC 291 bout and how he managed to regroup after the first round didn't go his way:
"I was a little bit nervous to fight Henry Cejudo. Of course, you know, he's a high level fighter. I tried to [do a] smart fight. I lost the first round, you know, he hold me down. Second round, I just go. I fight my fight. you know, crazy fight and it was working."
Check out Merab Dvalishvili's comments below: