Merab Dvalishvili has admitted that he has no interest in moving up to featherweight to pursue a second belt.
Bantamweight champion Dvalishvili has looked unbeatable in his current 12-fight winning run, and looks to defend his belt in a rematch with Sean O’Malley on Saturday night at UFC 316. He often claims that weight cutting is harder than the fight itself, or powering through his myriad of pre-fight injuries.
When a champion is as dominant as Dvalishvili has been, they often want to move up in weight and challenge for another title. However, he admits that the prospect of facing the legendary Alexander Volkanovski is a bridge too far in his pursuits of glory.
Merab Dvalishvili admits fears over fighting Alexander Volkanovski
Merab Dvalishvili is just days away from his second bantamweight title defense against Sean O’Malley, and is a sizeable favorite to win comfortably. He dominated their first meeting, despite protests from the former champion, and is expected to do the same this time around.
During a promotional appearance on Fox Sports in Australia, the champion was interviewed by his fellow title holder Volkanovski. He told the Australian: “I mentioned a couple of times I don’t want to fight you because you are way stronger than me.
“I don’t want to take a big risk, I’m good. Even though this weight cut sucks I’d rather kill myself to make this weight and be comfortable here. I’m good, I don’t want to [fight Volkanovski]. Then we can cook peacefully and wish each other the best.”
Volkanovski laughed at that idea, which appeared to be slightly tongue in cheek, before telling Dvalishvili: “I appreciate that, the respect is mutual anyway. You’re a legend, I can’t wait to see you and good luck this weekend.”
Alexander Volkanovski’s next title fight is one ‘nobody wants’
Alexander Volkanovski’s future at featherweight is now unsure after he won the belt in a hellacious UFC 314 main event against Diego Lopes. It appears that he’s heading towards a defense against Yair Rodriguez, whom he already dominated and knocked out in 2023.
He appears to want a fight with the undefeated Movsar Evloev, but the UFC is likely to make him have one more fight to guarantee a title shot. Speaking with Fox Sports, Volkanovski explained: “It’s pretty clear that it wasn’t going to be Movsar.
“I thought it would be him because he’s undefeated. I think they’ve matched him up. You’ve seen him tweet something about that, so he’s already gone out and made it public that he unfortunately can’t fight for the title.
“Yair’s name has popped up, but no dates are set right now. I think it’s just a lot of moving parts through all of the divisions. I think there’s a lot happening right now and we’ll see what comes up. The rumors you’re all hearing are pretty much true, but nothing is locked in.”