Merab Dvalishvili doesn’t come from a wrestling background but you’d never know that with his impressive performance shutting down UFC Hall of Famer Frankie Edgar at RAF 9.
A slow start gave way to an offensive onslaught from Dvalishvili as he scored multiple takedowns to eventually reach a 12-1 lead over Edgar, which ended the match via technical superiority. Afterwards, Dvalishvili turned his attention towards his old rival Henry Cejudo, who he was originally supposed to meet in his RAF debut.
“I
want to call him out,” Dvalishvili said about Cejudo. “He disappeared when I was ready. Henry, I hope you have big balls to go wrestling with me. Show me some Mexican balls, bro!
“This is wrestling, one point can change everything. I love RAF. It motivates me. This is a great reason to be busy, to get better everywhere. I’m ready. Whoever. I would like to challenge everybody.”
An early takedown attempt from Dvalishvili was thwarted by Edgar but the referee soon issued a warning for a lack of activity. That cost Dvalishvili a point and Edgar continued showing strong defense until the first period ended.
Dvalishvili got on the board with a pushout as he kept attacking in an attempt to put Edgar on the ground for the first time. The former UFC bantamweight champion then snatched a single-leg takedown to score two more points on Edgar as he stayed the busier wrestler.
A late clash of heads busted Dvalishvili directly in the nose after he just recently suffered another break during a training session.
On the restart in the final period, Dvalishvili grabbed another single-leg with a slick trip that scored four more points. Dvalishvili grabbed a leg lace but he couldn’t turn Edgar before they were stood up again by the referee.
Before long, Dvalishvili was deep on another body lock and Edgar tried to reverse for a throw of his own to get back in the match but he was shut down before landing on his back. Dvalishvili executed one more turn after the takedown and that put him up by more than 10 points, which gave him the tech fall victory.
With Dvalishvili still waiting on his trilogy against reigning UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan to get scheduled, he plans on staying busy in RAF with his sights set on Cejudo next.
