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A former UFC bantamweight champion has lauded teammate Merab Dvalishvili for the Georgian's achievement in the sport. 'The Machine' and Aljamain Sterling, who have been friends for a long time, are also members of the same team, Serra-Longo. They also train together.
Even though the two fighters have previously competed in the same weight class, they have never shown interest in fighting each other out of mutual respect and friendship.
During 'Funk Master's' title reign, Dvalishvili was the No.1 ranked bantamweight contender, who refused a title fight against Sterling.
Sterling lost his strap to Sean O’Malley at UFC 292, after which he made his featherweight debut against Calvin Kattar at UFC 300 and won via unanimous decision. In his most recent outing at UFC 310, the 35-year-old lost to Movsar Evloev.
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A fan on X recently lauded the former UFC bantamweight kingpin for his achievements in the octagon. The user wrote:
"Ppl give you hate but your a top 5 135er of all time and went up a weight and did ur thing n then 50/50 with evloev on a #1 contender fight. Not enough respect to the funk"
Sterling responded, praising Dvalishvili and the work they have done together as teammates:
"💯 Merab literally have the most UFC wins bantamweight history. Hella proud of the work we’ve done 💪🏾"
Check out Aljamain Sterling's comments about Merab Dvalishvili below:
What is next for Merab Dvalishvili?
UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili most recently defended his strap against Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311.
'The Machine's' next fight could be a rematch with former champion Sean O'Malley. As per rumors, this potential rematch could headline UFC 316. MMA content creator Kevin took to X and shared the news in a post captioned:
"🚨BREAKING NEWS🚨 Sean O’Malley vs Merab Dvalishvili is Official for the #UFC316 Main Event 🔥 Suga is currently in Fight Camp as well. I am Unsure The Current Status of Pantoja KKF. At The Moment #UFC316 looks like: Sean vs Merab 2 Kayla vs Pena Co Main"
Check out the original post below:
