Aiemann Zahabi has been a longtime Tristar product, so comparing someone to one of his legendary gym compatriots over the years, Georges St. Pierre, is high praise not to be taken lightly. Zahabi drew a comparison between the former two-division champion and the current bantamweight kingpin, Merab Dvalishvili, ahead of the latter’s next title defense.

Aiemann Zahabi has his own high-stakes bantamweight bout to focus on as he takes on Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera in a battle of ranked bantamweight contenders at UFC Vancouver on October 18th. Zahabi appeared on MMA Canada to give his thoughts on not just the ‘Chito’ Vera clash, but also on the upcoming bantamweight title fight on October 4th.

When touching on that bout between reigning titleholder Merab Dvalishvili and Cory Sandhagen at UFC 320, Zahabi said,

“Man, very interesting fight. Guys, I think it’s going to be great to watch. Okay, first of all, bantamweight division, the guys are great. All very good. I think that Cory did some really good stuff against Umar [Nurmagomedov] in terms of granbying out, you know, defending the back by grabbing the ankles up. Like, he didn’t get dominated on the ground at all, you know.”

“Obviously I’m sure he’s been refining that stuff to get better at them already. And now he’s facing a guy similar to Umar in terms of like we know Merab’s going to shoot eventually. He’s going to shoot, you know, it’s no secret. And he’s like GSP in that sense that we all knew GSP was going to shoot. He’s taking you down anyway, man [laughs]. Merab’s going to take you down no matter what.”

“That is something you need to make peace with. And I feel like Cory is the type of fighter who’s made that peace, but he’s also smart enough to find a way that okay, as I’m going down, how can I go down in the best possible scenario? Roll out, maybe not get dominated, find a way back up to my feet? Can I get him exhausted? Can I roll in a way where maybe I end up on top of Merab?”

Aiemann Zahabi thinks Cory Sandhagen will “have better strike output than [Sean] O’Malley against Merab [Dvalishvili]”

As he further expounded upon his bout breakdown for the UFC 320 co-main event, Zahabi continued,

“Let’s see Merab on his back, you know. So, I think it’s going to be a really good fight. I also find that the height is going to play a good role because I think that Cory’s going to be more willing to throw the knee than Sean O’Malley was. I think Cory’s bringing in a better grappling, better granby rolls than [O’Malley] was bringing in. So, I think he’s going to have better strike output than O’Malley against Merab.”

“But that is to be seen. But if you were to ask me who’s gonna win, I think Merab is gonna win by taking him down and and dominating him on the ground eventually. You know, that’s what I think is gonna happen.”

“I could be wrong. I could be wrong. He’s been rocked many times before and Cory’s a slick switcher. So he might catch him on one of the switches with a nice strike or a nice knee or a nice elbow, very dynamic striker. It’s a must see. Must see, for sure.”