Back in August, UFC bantamweight top-ranked contender Merab Dvalishvili nearly jeopardized UFC head honcho Dana White‘s $20 million project, UFC 306: Riyadh Season Noche. ‘The Machine’ posted a video of himself with a large cut above his eye, captioned, “I got a little cut, but this is part of the training,” which alarmed Dana White. White was unhappy with this leak on social media and criticized Dvalishvili, stating, “Our guys are so dumb, it’s next-level unbelievable.”

This incident occurred before Dvalishvili’s set to face Sean O’Malley on September 14 at the highly anticipated event. However, despite the scolding from Dana White, ‘The Machine’ was undeterred. In fact, he took a step forward after his injury, opting to remove his stitches rather than having them removed by a medical professional. He even posted a short video of himself doing so on his Instagram account.

With the fight just a night away, the Georgian native again shared a close-up picture of himself, which was later re-shared by the MMA-oriented page Casual MMA on X, captioned, “Oh Baby.” In the photo, the cut above his eye appeared to be healing but was still not fully ready to take a blow.

This caught the attention of fans, who couldn’t resist targeting Dvalishvili’s injury spot and predicting that the fight might end badly for him.

‘The Machine’ is currently on a 10-fight winning streak and has not been defeated since 2018, having defeated opponents like Petr Yan and Henry Cejudo to get close to the bantamweight title. However, fans seem to be overlooking this in the comments section. One fan predicting a quick result for Dvalishvili, wrote, “Sean’s busting that open in the first round.”

Meanwhile, another fan, who appears to be a supporter of ‘The Machine,’ expressed concern about the injury scar, worried that it would become a stigma if ‘The Machine’ is defeated by Sean O’Malley. He wrote, “This sucks cause he’s going to make that cut his entire personality when he loses.” Lastly, there was also an O’Malley fan who congratulated him for his early wishes, saying, “Looks like blowing on it could split it open again. I was rooting for him too, oh well congratulations O’Malley.”

What do you think after seeing Merab Dvalishvili’s latest picture of his injury? Do you believe it will be as serious as some fans predicted, or are they just overreacting? Drop your thoughts in the comments section.