Don’t expect Merab Dvalishvili vs. Cory Sandhagen at UFC 320 to go the full five rounds, because the new and improved “Machine” is now operating on a whole new level and intends to finish all his fights.
That’s the message being delivered by Merab’s head coach John Wood, who has seen a big change in Dvalishvili during the fight camp for his October 4th bantamweight title defense.
“Merab is going to do what Merab does, and he’s gonna do it in a bigger, better fashion than he ever has,” Wood said in a new
interview with Home of Fight. “Right now that man is on a tear in the gym. I can’t even express or explain how much better he is and how much better he’s getting in in this camp.”
“It’s almost jaw dropping. Everybody in the gym is buzzing about it. Everybody in the gym is going, ‘Holy s–t, where did this come from? Where did this version of this guy come from? And it really is just Merab believing in himself in a different fashion now.”
“He’s not just this grinder,” Wood continued. “He’s not just this guy who’s gonna take you down a thousand times. He’s now looking to hurt you. He’s now looking to finish you. He’s now looking to create just entertaining, devastating fights. And I think that you’re going to see a whole difference in this fight that is going to be just brutal and even funner to watch.”
We’d argue you already got a preview of what to expect during Dvalishvili’s last title defense against Sean O’Malley. “Suga” famously dialed in for his rematch against “The Machine” but still got dominated and ended up being finished via a slick north south choke.
Merab was a nightmare to deal with before he started adding deadly submissions to his game. Now fighters will have to worry about every takedown, not just what those cumulative takedowns mean on the scorecards at the end of the fight.
