Just weeks out from his UFC 316 title defense against Sean O’Malley, Merab Dvalishvili has suffered a potentially debilitating injury.
A few weeks ago, UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili shared images on his social media of a cut he suffered during his UFC 316 training camp, however, fortunately the cut wasn’t a fight-threatening one.
Despite that, more recently, ‘The Machine’ shared images online after suffering a brutal broken toe in training, just weeks out from his UFC 316 fight against Sean O’Malley.
This isn’t the first time Dvalishvili has suffered an injury weeks out from a title defense, as before his UFC 311 fight against Umar Nurmagomedov, the Georgian had to trick the commission so that he could fight.
Dvalishvili compares toe injury to Conor McGregor’s
When the news of Dvalishvili’s toe injury surfaced, fans began to worry as last year, Conor McGregor’s UFC comeback was canceled after he suffered a broken toe just weeks out from his scheduled fight at UFC 303.
Despite that, ‘The Machine’ has made it clear that his broken toe will not jeopardize his UFC 316 title fight, explaining how he is different to ‘The Notorious’ Conor McGregor.
“I mean, I don’t want to comment about Conor McGregor’s toe because I don’t know exactly the pain and the situation (he was in) but I still have nine other toes and it’s fine,” Dvalishvili told Michael Bisping and Paul Felder as they cracked up laughing.
Merab Dvalishvili hoping to show his striking more in rematch against O’Malley
It is unclear how much a broken toe will affect the Georgian champion’s usual game plan of putting pressure on his opponent with his relentless wrestling, however, he has claimed he is coming into the rematch with the hope of showcasing his striking more.
“I think I’m gonna make some changes but I can’t say now, I cannot give my secret but not big changes, maybe more striking. It was my first title fight and I was more focused on winning the fight… Now I want to show a good fight and now I’m gonna show more striking,” Dvalishvili claimed.
Of course, O’Malley has made such a big name for himself because of his elite striking and highlight reel knockouts scored on his way to becoming the bantamweight champion.