It is no surprise to anyone that starting a career in mixed martial arts (MMA) is a more than sacrificial task. Furthermore, many have not had it easy before succeeding in sport. For example, Charles Oliveira grew up in the favelas of brazil. Alexandre Pantoja worked as a Glovo delivery boy and is now one of the most dominant champions in the UFC. Alex Pereira worked in a workshop while an alcoholic before sport literally saved his life. Even his own Ilia Topuria He had a difficult past, leaving his homeland and working on the Alicante coast when he arrived in Spain.
Well, Merab Dvalishvili continues this pattern of sacrifice before triumph. He began training wrestling, sambo and judo in Tbilisi, Georgia, from an early age to defend himself. At just 21 years old, in 2013, he left his country with one goal in mind: to be a professional wrestler. His arrival was not easy at all, because he almost ended up deported because of his lawyer, who deceived him and stole his money, as he told a Georgian journalist a few years ago.
Since then he combined his career in sports with a job in construction, in which he was until 2019having even debuted in the UFC. Numerous publications go through the networks of the Georgian as a worker, highlighting a video in which he knocked down a wall based on kicks. That past in which he combined hard work on the construction site with his demanding training sessions has given him a cardiovascular resistance within the reach of very few. Hence his nickname, ‘The Machine’.
Moving on to his sporting side, his start was not easy either. In his debut as a professional he was defeated, as was his third match. I was with a negative record (1-2), so a thought arose in his head: “How am I going to win in the UFC?” However, he quickly looked for an alternative, since his motivation was to fight. «I told myself: ‘win or lose, I will continue fighting.’ As long as they covered my flight I could fight in China or Russia. “I forgot about the UFC or Bellator,” he confessed in an interview on ‘Vsuspod’. An example of improvement.
And that ability to overcome adversity was what made him advance, since he accumulated six wins in a row and was able to enter the UFC. But not even with those Merab could enjoy peace of mind, as he lost against Frankie Saenz and Ricky Simón in his first two duels in the company. Therefore, he had to row against the current again to stay within the American promoter. Thus, he managed to channel his career and went on to add ten wins in a row, enough to achieve the opportunity for the belt. Furthermore, it was a path in which he defeated former champions, such as Henry Cejudo, Petr Yan and José Aldo.
Finally, at UFC 306 it would be his turn to fight the king of the category, the charismatic Sean O’Malley. After dominating the five rounds of the fight, he finished the night with the title on his waist, being the new bantamweight champion (135 pounds or 61.2 kilos). Now he has a tough rival, Umar Nurmagomedov. He Khabib’s cousin He has six wins in a row in the UFC and has great expectations around him. For his part, Merab Dvalishvili took the match personally, considering that the Russian disrespected him and that he did not deserve the opportunity. However, this Saturday at UFC 311 they will have the opportunity to clarify everything inside the cage.
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