Merab Dvalishvili has ranked his toughest UFC challenges in order and the list may surprise you.
This April will mark seven years undefeated for Georgia’s Merab Dvalishvili. The UFC Bantamweight Champion conquered adversity early on in his UFC career, bouncing back from two-straight losses to the insane 12-fight win-streak he has today.
Dvalishvili nearly lost the title against the undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311 in January but ‘The Machine’ eventually pulled through in the later rounds, taking three rounds to two in a closely-contested fight.
Nurmagomedov’s up there with Marlon Moraes as one of the toughest fights of Dvalishvili’s career, however, Dvalishvili doesn’t exactly see it that way.
Merab Dvalishvili ranks his last 5 opponents
In a recent video, Dvalishvili was asked in Georgian to rank his last 5 opponents on difficulty alone.
To the surprise of many, Dvalishvili said Nurmagomedov was his easiest opponent out of former champions Sean O’Malley, Henry Cejudo, Petr Yan and Jose Aldo, Aldo the most challenging in his eyes.
How Merab Dvalishvili’s last 5 fights went
Two-time featherweight champion Aldo defended all 16 of Dvalishvili’s takedown attempts from their fight at UFC 278 in 2022. Despite his inability to get the fight to the floor, Dvalishvili racked up 5 minutes of control time in the clinch and had double the amount of Aldo’s strikes.
Petr Yan was the second most difficult fight on Dvalishvili’s rankings even though the Georgian took him down 11 times for a 50-45 shutout on the scorecards. Dvalishvili took down former Olympian Henry Cejudo six times and Sean O’Malley five times, ultimately deeming Cejudo the harder fight.
Umar Nurmagomedov had strong start in his title meeting with Dvalishvili, winnings round 1 and 2 before Dvalishvili really started to pick up the pace in round 3, managing to take him down 7 times in front of his legendary cousin Khabib Nurmagomedov, the former UFC Lightweight Champion.
A few months removed from his first title defense, not everybody seems to agree with Merab Dvalishvili’s rankings…
“Putting Umar first, this man knows what he’s doing,” one fan wrote of Dvalishvili’s list.
“He pretty much did it in reverse,” another fan said on Instagram.
“He ranked them by how he respects each fighter,” another fan commented.