Unlike literally every other fighter in the history of the promotion, Merab Dvalishvili did not want to fight for the title. But he had a good and honorable reason to do so. The Georgian, who became the #1 ranked bantamweight contender last year after his spectacular nine-fight win streak in the promotion, was the prime candidate to fight then-champion Aljamain Sterling last year.

However, ‘The Machine’ is teammates and terrific friends with Sterling and announced publicly that he would never fight his ‘brother’, much to the chagrin of UFC CEO Dana White, who said he ‘hated’ this mindset. However, with Sterling out of the picture, he is back in the title mix and his upcoming fight with Henry Cejudo will determine if he fights for the title next.

UFC 298 and 299 will determine fate of Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili

Aljamain Sterling lost his bantamweight title to the flamboyant Sean O’Malley, who caught ‘Funkmaster’ flush on the chin with a perfectly timed counter left in the second round of their UFC 292 clash. After this, there were widespread calls from fans for Merab Dvalishvili to fight for the title now that Sterling was no longer champion.

The UFC and ‘Suga’, however, decided his first title defense would be Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera, the only person to beat O’Malley in his pro MMA career, at UFC 299 next month. However, the UFC did not forget about Dvalishvili and matched him up against with Henry Cejudo for UFC 298 tonight.

This bout is seen as a virtual title eliminator with the winner expected to fight for the title, i.e., the winner of the O’Malley-Vera UFC 299 clash. If Dvalishvili can defeat ‘Triple C’ tonight, and O’Malley manages to avenge the only defeat on his record against ‘Chito’ Vera next month, fans can expect to see Merab Dvalishvili vs. Sean O’Malley by the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

And Dvalishvili has a stylistic advantage over O’Malley, who relies entirely on his world-class striking combined with his keen sense of range and excellent footwork and has no significant ground game. Dvalishvili, on the other hand, comes from a grappling background.

With his speed, patience and ability to stalk opponents until he finds the perfect opening for a takedown, he may prove to be a significant challenge to the champion. However, his grappling skills are sure to be put to the test tonight by Cejudo, the youngest American to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling.

Cejudo a tough opponent for Dvalishvili

The stakes for Merab Dvalishvili vs. Henry Cejudo have been raised with the latter having promised at the UFC 298 pre-fight press conference that he would retire if he loses to the Georgian. And while earlier this may have been dismissed as Cejudo being Cejudo and putting on a show to sell PPVs, this seems not to be the case this time around.

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The former two-division champion, dubbed the ‘King of Cringe’ for putting on shenanigans to sell fights, has been unusually pensive and serious this time around, perhaps an indication of just how seriously he is taking the fight. And this is not a good sign for Dvalishvili.

‘The Machine’ will find that his excellent wrestling skills will be put to a tough test by the Mexican-American and there fight may actually come down to who can dominate on the feet given their solid wrestling bases. However, more likely than not, their fight is expected to be a grappling masterclass.

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