UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili still has serious animosity towards one of his former rivals, whom he’d like to fight again after UFC 320.
Merab Dvalishvili is days away from making his third bantamweight title defense of 2025 at UFC 320. Dvalishvili and Cory Sandhagen will square off in the UFC 320 co-main event in a highly anticipated stylistic matchup.
After earning the bantamweight title by defeating Sean O’Malley at UFC 306, Dvalishvili has finished O’Malley and outpointed the previously unbeaten Umar Nurmagomedov during his reign. ‘The Machine’ is one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, and is quickly making a strong case to be atop the list.
Despite his dominant run in 2025, capped off by winning an ESPY earlier this summer, Dvalishvili believes he has unfinished business with the man he defeated to begin the year at UFC 311.
So much so that Dvalishvili claims he was too cautious the first time around, a mistake he won’t make in a potential rematch.
Merab Dvalishvili vs. Umar Nurmagomedov 2?
During a recent interview with Setanta Sports, Dvalishvili aimed at Umar Nurmagomedov in a fiery rant ahead of his UFC 320 title defense.
“If I have to fight Umar Nurmagomedov next, I’m confident I’ll break him this time and beat him clean,” Dvalishvili said.
“Our last fight wasn’t like that. I was controlling things and won without taking unnecessary risks or headaches, but I won’t let him off and out of the Octagon this time. I’ll break him in the first minute and a half, then drag him around the Octagon for the remaining 23 1/2 minutes like a sack…
“As we Georgians say, I’ll drag him all over the Octagon like a sack. Even after losing, he didn’t learn his lesson.”
Nurmagomedov will fight for the first time since his first-career loss at UFC 311, later in October at UFC 321. Nurmagomedov faces Mario Bautista in a pivotal matchup in the bantamweight division’s title picture.