If you’re into serial title defenders, Merab Dvalishvili is a wild man who won’t be content until he’s left the UFC’s bantamweight division in shreds. What he’s doing right now is some nasty work. He just fought nine days ago, a 25-minute pummeling of Cory Sandhagen in which he broke the record for most takedowns in a fight (20), and he is already rebooked for UFC 323 in December.
After that? Well, he is eying March, if you want to know. And if the UFC can fit him into a summer date during International Fight Week, that would be perfect — he’ll jump in quicker than he would an icy pond.
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It’s. Nasty. Work.
It really shouldn’t be this easy. Let’s not forget that a little more than a year ago the 135-pound class was considered the deepest in the UFC. There were so many “names” condensed into one place that the game of arm-chair matchmaking was as time-committed as a game of Monopoly.
You had the likes of Marlon “Chito” Vera, who was having his 2019 Jorge Masvidal day in the sun, and the legend Jose Aldo. You had Petr Yan, the Russian Bugsy, along with Song Yadong and Sandhagen. There was Henry Cejudo still floating around, Umar Nurmagomedov, and the divisional newcomer Deiveson Figuiredo. Of course, there was Sean O’Malley, too, who in a dye-cast flash of an eye snuck in to win the title, and Merab, the human version of an amphetamine.
That cluster of contenders had such parity that the belt felt destined to become a kind of hot potato, changing hands frequently.
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Yet cut forward to the fall of 2025, and there is no parity whatsoever.
There is Merab and a yawning chasm that swallows the voices of all those who shout. He’s the jowly dog, and all the other 135ers are chew toys. He doesn’t tear anybody apart limb by limb; he leaves them intact so he can play with again later.
In other words, torture. He tortures these poor souls, takes their hopes and coverts them into delusions. He told me once that he knew when he was breaking an opponent in the cage, and I’ll never forget the smile that crept over his face as he said the words, “I can feel it.”
That feeling is his drug.
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Not that it hasn’t been impressive to watch. After taking the title from O’Malley at UFC 306 last fall, he has been on a death march to defend it as many times as he can. So far he’s defended it three times in 2025 alone, making his December date with Yan historic. He will break the UFC’s record for most title defenses in a year, which is music to those cruciferous ears. What he wants is to put the division on tumble dry and keep in there for as long as he can.
Just keep feeding him the same fighters, and he’ll keep planting them into the soft earth. Poor Sandhagen will suffer flashbacks of that encounter at UFC 320, and he’ll never be able to watch Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” again without twitching. It’s not a fun thing, fighting Merab. It’s a traumatic undertaking.
Now Yan is the next eligible contender.
Get used to this, Petr. You’re probably going to visit again soon.
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The last time Merab fought Yan, back in 2023, he doubled him up on strikes and took him down 11 times on 49 attempts over the course of 25 minutes. Merab is, of course, a maximalist when it comes to time allotments; he likes to use the full 25 whenever he can, so that he can feel like he got his money’s worth. It’s a custody thing more than it is an ego thing. He actually lamented finishing O’Malley in their rematch this past June, because his sadistic side wanted “Suga” Sean to serve the whole sentence.
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He felt he let O’Malley off lightly.
Nasty. Work.
We’ve seen some crazy title reigns over the years. Tito Ortiz had a hellacious run in 2001, and the “Iceman” Chuck Liddell did work in 2006. Welterweight champ Kamaru Usman was trucking dudes in 2021, too.
Most recently, Alex Pereira defended the light heavyweight title three times in 2024 under ridiculous circumstances — filling the superstar void at UFC 300, filling in for Conor McGregor at UFC 303, filling in for fun in Salt Lake City at UFC 307. Pereira finished everyone he faced, with Khalil Rountree presenting the biggest challenge, lasting into the fourth round.
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Yet it was Rountree, a training partner of Dvalishvili’s at Syndicate MMA, who gave a glimpse into just the kind of maniac we’re dealing with. He casually tossed out in an interview last week that Dvalishvili sparred five rounds on the morning of the Sandhagen fight. Merab confirmed this Monday on his in-studio visit with Uncrowned’s Ariel Helwani.
He went 10 total rounds on Oct. 4 just for the hell of it and — like a mad man — was still dancing in the middle of the Octagon at the end of the night.
He wants to keep dancing.
Perhaps the best thing about Merab’s reign at bantamweight (and this ultimate run at history) is that he just wants it to keep going forever. He has no intentions of going up a weight class and challenging Alexander Volkanovski or fighting in crossovers. He’s not interested in moonlighting in a boxing ring. He wants to just keep beating bantamweights as frequently and for as long as humanly possible.
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With a nickname like “The Machine,” as long is humanly possible might stretch on for a long time. Not that Merab isn’t human, because he is. He’s just a human who is right now leagues above the nearest man, and he wants to prove it as many times as the UFC will allow.
But four title defenses in a year?
Nasty, brother. Nasty work.
