How do you beat Merab Dvalishvili? The answer to that question has proved to be incredibly difficult, but Demetrious Johnson did his best to explain how he’d game plan for the unstoppable UFC bantamweight champion.
No one has been able to solve Dvalishvili’s combination of relentless pace, grappling, and cardio as “The Machine” already holds wins over the likes of Jose Aldo, Petr Yan, Henry Cejudo, Umar Nurmagomedov, and Sean O’Malley twice.
As the record holder for most title defenses in UFC flyweight history, Johnson is familiar with dominating a division, where he held the belt for almost six years. If Johnson had the opportunity to face Dvalishvili (20-4 MMA, 13-2 UFC), he would bring the fight to him.
“If I was to fight Merab, I would press him the whole entire time,” Johnson said on “The Simple Man Podcast.” “Force him to shoot and try to make him stand. When he shoots, make him pay for shooting, not try to out-grapple (him). When it comes to grappling, he likes to stay in guard. So push on the face, get a knee shield, and then when he tries to come in, go underneath him. It has to be a constant fight when you fight Merab.
“When you get into clinch, start throwing knees, elbows, punches. When he backs out of the clinch, right hand, body kick, high kick. It’s got to be a constant fight with Merab. You can’t allow him to dance outside the void and do his thing, and then he blasts a double, and once he blasts that double, you got to have a good enough ground game to keep those frames to keep him from burying on you.”
Johnson breaks down Dvalishvili vs. Sandhagen
Dvalishvili is set to make his third title defense against Cory Sandhagen (18-5 MMA, 11-4 UFC) in the UFC 320 co-main event on Oct. 4 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Johnson thinks Sandhagen has a diverse enough arsenal on the ground to make Dvalishvili work.
“His game plan never changes,” Johnson said of Dvalishvili. “He stays outside the void, he moves, he moves, comes in with a double leg, doesn’t really focus on passing guard, likes to stay in half guard, stay in guard, beat him up. When they try to posture up, he goes for head-and-arm (choke). So, he’s very good at what he does.
“I think the thing that Cory Sandhagen does very well is that he’s very good at fighting and going after legs, going after leg locks. Look at what he did to Figueiredo. He got him with that 50-50. It ended up being a heel hook. He was putting a lot of pressure on that knee. When he fought Umar Nurmagomedov, he kept diving for the legs. So, Cory’s not afraid to engage in the wrestling aspect of it.”
