{"id":273770,"date":"2025-11-09T18:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T18:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/273770\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T18:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T18:39:08","slug":"merab-dvalishvili-would-accept-alexander-volkanovski-fight-from-ufc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/273770\/","title":{"rendered":"Merab Dvalishvili would accept Alexander Volkanovski fight from UFC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Merab Dvalishvili may have too much love for Alexander Volkanovski to actively call him out, but if the UFC were to offer him the champion vs. champion fight \u2026 he\u2019d take it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">That\u2019s what the dominant bantamweight champ is saying after previous comments had fans accusing him \u201cThe Machine\u201d of ducking the one opponent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-320-ankalaev-vs-pereira-rematch-start-time-full-results-espn-mma\/394153\/bantamweight-goat-after-ufc-320-merab-dvalishvili-is-on-the-verge-of-undisputed-greatness\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">that could challenge him.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cLook, I don\u2019t want to challenge him because I have so much respect for the great champion Alex Volkanovski,\u201d Dvalishvili told <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/11\/09\/merab-dvalishvili-confirms-alex-volkanovski-fight-could-be-next-year-as-he-corrects-the-record\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bloody Elbow.<\/a> \u201cI just want to focus on my weight class and I don\u2019t want to be disrespectful by challenging or mentioning his name.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">While we\u2019re all down for champions sticking around and taking on all comers at their own weight class, Dvalishvili has almost lapped the entire roster of 135 pound contenders and is set to fight Petr Yan for the second time. Their first fight was \u2026 not competitive. If his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-news\/395815\/merab-vs-petr-yan-2-headlines-ufc-323-henry-cejudo-jan-blachowicz-dec-6-ppv-card\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC 323<\/a> fight on December 6th is equally dominant, the UFC will have to get creative to keep people interested.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">And according to Merab, all they gotta do to make a Volk fight is tell him that\u2019s what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cIf it becomes a thing where the UFC asks me to do this fight?\u201d he said. \u201cListen. I\u2019m a fighter, I will show up and I will fight. Usually, UFC sends me a contract, \u2018You fight this guy,\u2019 and boom, that\u2019s it. So if you ask me, I don\u2019t want to challenge him or call him out, but if they want it then I am ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The UFC is moving broadcast homes from ESPN to Paramount \/ CBS at the start of 2026. Some fans are worried that the promotion will rest on its laurels now that the PPV model is disappearing but with subscribers needed to justify a $7.7 billion deal, it\u2019s just as likely that UFC will take their foot off the brake and string together a bunch of big fights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Dvalishvili vs. Volkanovski? That\u2019s the best fighting the best, and isn\u2019t that what UFC is all about?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Merab Dvalishvili may have too much love for Alexander Volkanovski to actively call him out, but if the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85,1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-273770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}