It’s been quite a week for Saba Lazashvili.
Prior to Wednesday, he was an unknown Georgian wrestler and teammate to Merab Dvalishvili but after backing up the former UFC bantamweight champion when they were attacked by Usman Nurmagomegdov and members of his squad, the 21-year-old has suddenly become a household name.
On Saturday, Lazashvili not only competed at RAF Abu Dhabi on short notice but he pulled off an upset win over former WEC champion Urijah Faber.
Down early in the match, Lazashvili stormed back in the third period after securing a takedown and then turning Faber several times to rack up a lot of points. In the end, Lazshvili went up 12-7 and Faber just couldn’t mount enough offense to prevent the loss.
“I want to say thank you to everybody coming here and supporting,” Lazashvili said after his win.”I’m really grateful for everything. [Merab] said I will be champion of the UFC in the future! I’ll wrestle everybody here.”
It was an ultra impressive showing, especially considering that Lazashvili wasn’t even supposed to compete when he arrived in Abu Dhabi but him taking out members of Nurmagomedov’s team during that brawl suddenly made him incredibly popular.
Now, he’s a winner in RAF, and it’s hard to believe this is the last major opportunity that Lazashvili receives in the aftermath of that brawl.
