A heckler got more than he bargained for when Merab Dvalishvili jumped the gate and stormed over to him during the Craig Jones Invitational.
The bantamweight will fight for championship glory on September 14 at UFC 306 at the Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Merab Dvalishvili confronts heckler
With less than a month before his major title fight against Sean O’Malley, Merab Dvalishvili almost engaged in a brawl with a heckler.
On Friday evening, the Georgian attended the Craig Jones Invitational with the intention of watching the martial arts action. However, his evening took a twist when he confronted a member of the crowd.
After hearing something he didn’t like, footage showed the contender leaving the VIP section by jumping over the rail, navigating his way past a man who appeared to be working security at the event, before getting in the face of the spectator.
After gaining access to the crowd, the fan’s concern instantly materialized on his face. A joyful smile turned to worry as he waved his arm around, seemingly in a bid to indicate to the fighter that he’d gotten the wrong end of the stick.
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As Dvalishvili closed the distance, the fan put both his hands out in a continued effort to defuse the situation. The MMA star then appears to place his palm on the man’s head before rubbing his hair.
A security guard then intervenes and prevents things from escalating further.
A member of the bantamweight’s team told MMA Fighting that the incident was very real. And the heckler isn’t the only person the 135-pounder has gotten annoyed at in the lead-up to the biggest fight of his life.
Merab Dvalishvili vows to ‘smack’ Sean O’Malley’s coach
While it’s fair to say the two titans headlining UFC 306 have shown no restraint in exchanging trash talk, the rivalry has transcended far beyond just the men headlining the card, with ‘Suga’s’ coach getting involved in the war of words.
When the match-up was first announced, the champion’s mentor Tim Welch claimed his fighter was going to target Dvalishvili’s ‘eight-inch nose’.
In an episode of The Timbo and Sugar Show, the MMA connoisseur went a step further, claiming: “I got a message from some guy on Instagram and it says, ‘Hey I have some dirt on Merab’… he gave it to me.
“I said, ‘Let’s hear it’. He said, ‘He has split custody of a cat with his ex-stripper girlfriend’.”
Enraged by the claims, in a recent interview, Dvalishvili claimed he is going to give Welch a ‘smack’.
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