No one expected Merab Dvalishvili would amount to much after he lost his first two fights in the UFC. And yet, ‘The Machine’ proved everyone wrong by winning his next twelve fights, picking up the bantamweight title on the way. The Georgian has slayed the biggest names in the division in his last few fights, beating Umar Nuramagomedov in a challenging outing at UFC 311 to register his first defense.

‘The Machine’ was asked to rank his last five opponents from easiest to hardest by a fellow Georgian social media personality. And the list was pretty surprising overall. But what caught most people’s attention was ‘Young Eagle’ being ranked dead last on that list. The reigning champion ranked the legendary Jose Aldo as his toughest opponent, followed by Russian dynamo Petr Yan. Henry Cejudo was Dvalishvili’s third toughest opponent, followed by Sean O’Malley, and of course, Umar Nuramgomedov at last place.

It is safe to say that fans found the whole list pretty surprising. After all, ‘The Machine’ beat Aldo and Yan pretty handily. To be fair, Aldo stuffed all of Dvalishvili’s 16 takedown attempts in their UFC 278 clash. However, the former 145-pound kingpin also has one of the most vaunted takedown defenses in the history of the sport. But still, the Georgian champ did beat the Brazilian pretty handily, getting the better of their striking exchanges and notching up five minutes of control time in the clinch.

Yan, too, was pretty easy for Dvalishvili as he won all five rounds of their March 2023 Fight Night clash. Cejudo, in fact, had more success against the Georgian than the other two legends, clearly winning the first round of their UFC 298 clash on the judges’ scorecard, which cannot be said for the other two. Sean O’Malley coming in fourth is pretty fair since he dominated ‘Suga’ en route to a shutout victory in their historic UFC 306 clash. But Umar Nuramgoemdov coming in fifth is surprising!

Umar Nurmagomedov and his epic UFC 311 clash against Merab Dvalishvili

With his illustrious cousin, Khabib Nurmagomedov, in his corner, ‘Young Eagle’ started pretty well in his UFC 311 clash against Merab Dvalishvili. The Dagestani juggernaut had the elite grappling skills required to hang with ‘The Machine’, and had a remarkably dynamic striking game that was better than the Georgian’s. This is why the Dagestani was the three-to-one betting favorite going into the Dvalishvili fight. And it seemed the bookmakers were right, at least for the first 10 minutes.

Dvalishvili was no match for Umar’s sharp striking as the Dagestani dominated the first two rounds. However, ‘The Machine’ rallied back remarkably well in the third and took the last three rounds to win a unanimous decision. Amidst this, ‘The Machine’ was in full flow with his showmanship and also took down the Dagestani 7 times out of his total 30 attempts, one of which was in front of Umar’s legendary cousin right in front of ‘Team Umar’ corner. Talk about cardio! Talk about being emphatic!

But the margins were close. One judge saw the champ winning four rounds, while the other two and most of the fans and analysts thought Dvalishvili won three rounds to Umar’s two. In addition, it turned out that ‘Young Eagle’ had broken his hand in the early rounds, which is part of the reason he struggled in the latter ones. So Merab scoring Umar as his fifth toughest opponent over Yan and Aldo is a bit head-scratching.

But then again, some fans feel that Dvalishvili’s list is more about how much he respects them than how tough he found them. If you look at the list from that perspective, it makes complete sense. After all, Dvalishvili detests Umar and thinks he got things handed to him because he is Khabib’s cousin. On the other hand, he has a lot of respect for Aldo, one of the greatest to ever do it, as well as Yan. What do you think about Merab Dvalishvili’s list of his toughest opponents?