Ahead of his UFC 320 title defense against Cory Sandhagen, Merab Dvalishvili has already picked his next opponent.
On October 4, the premier promotion returns to the T-Mobile Arena for UFC 320 with a championship double header, as Magomed Ankalaev defends his light heavyweight title in a rematch against Alex Pereira in the main event.
And in the co-main event, Merab Dvalishvili looks to defend his bantamweight title for a third time when he takes on Cory Sandhagen.
Over a month out from the spectacular event, ‘The Machine’ has already apologized to Sandhagen, claiming his fate is already drawn.
Dvalishvili has already named his next opponent ahead of UFC 320
For a while, a large part of the fanbase has claimed that ‘Sandman’ is the deserved contender, having not fought for UFC gold during his impressive tenure.
However, ahead of his clash against the sensational striker, Dvalishvili has already picked out his next opponent for after UFC 320, and looks to continue being one of the most active champions in the promotion.
“If I win, I want to turnaround quick and fight in December. I will ask the UFC for a favour to give me another fight in December or even November,” Merab told the Full Send Podcast.
“Petr Yan is the clear contender right now. He deserves it. I don’t want to make him wait too long,” Dvalishvili continued.
Since ‘The Machine’ dominated Petr Yan in 2023, the former champion has rebounded with three wins in a row, with his most recent having come against Marcus McGhee.
Dvalishvili reveals ‘impossible’ goal for his UFC career
More often than not these days, champions in the UFC attempt to go for double champion status instead of accumulating several title defenses in their weight divisions.
Despite that, Dvalishvili wants to break the mould and wants to go one step further by fighting on until he is 50-years-old.
“My goal is to fight until I’m 50 years old. I hope I can (still) be champion at that time, but it’s impossible. I’m 34 (years old) now. 16 more years staying champion, it’s impossible,” the champion claimed.
And with the Georgian having already picked his next opponent, he has also openly talked about a potential rematch with Umar Nurmagomedov down the line.