Dana White is getting the jitters before UFC 306, starts at The Sphere. It is not surprising since the boss spent a whopping $20 million on the production and a whole short film planned as well! He prepared a massive event that will spell disaster if it goes wrong. Nothing can be out of place and yet it almost was with Merab Dvalishvili.

Notably, Dvalishvili. who is going up against Sean O’Malley had an injury scare! However, it was a minor eye injury, but the fears of withdrawal are still there among fans. What does the coach have to say?

Merab Dvalishvili’s coach clears the air on the eye cut

During a talk with Kevin Iole, ahead of UFC 306, coach Ray Longo came clean on the cut Dvalishvili made above his eye. According to Dana White, the fighter took a risky move by updating about it on Instagram. Despite the minor heart attack to the fans, the Georgian is still fighting and ready to unleash himself.

The coach also clarified, “If it was a knee injury, I would say that would be a problem. Now you are gonna target something. He is gonna get cut in the fight. It is what it is. You can get punched in the face. If he had a shoulder injury or another injury, I think it would be a way different thing.”

Yet, he discussed the elephant in the room by stating, “But a cut’s a cut. And if it opens up, I don’t think it can impact on the fight.”

So, since the cut is above the eye, which could even happen during the bout, and it’s not a severe bone injury, the fighter can contest his bout. Given this situation, maybe O’Malley has to be on his toes! Yet, by the looks of it, the laceration was pretty deep, and it happened during training. The wound even needed stitches, so it was pretty intense.

On top of that, we saw the Georgian #1 ranked bantamweight with bumps on his left arm in an Instagram post. There was fear among the fans that it could be a staph infection, but the doctors reassured them it wasn’t. Merab Dvalishvili confirmed it in a New York Post interview by interrupting the same for a quick medical checkup.

He updated everyone during the interview that everything was fine. Meanwhile, when White reprimanded him for the leak about injury, interestingly, ‘The Machine’ was not agitated by how White reacted to his injury news. What did he say, though?

Dvalishvili takes criticism from Dana White

The UFC CEO lashed out, calling ‘The Machine’ ‘stupid’ for not only introducing suspicions about his main event clash with Sean O’Malley but also giving ‘Suga’ an exact and easy target for their fight. However, the newly crowned American citizen was not angry with the boss and admitted his mistake. Speaking to ‘New York Post Sports’, the bantamweight fighter said he understood why White was angry. However, he had previously replied to his boss and expressed no regrets about sharing the news.

Dvalishvili also posted a second video, where he cut his stitches using a normal scissor instead of a sterilized one, which could be even more dangerous. Dana White, of course, had suggested this, as well, and had told reporters he felt ‘The Machine was just “messing with” him with it. Merab Dvalishvili later realized that sterilized scissors were crucial to cutting surgical stitches on the body. He has not taken White’s words seriously and would not do this again.

“Yeah, like now, I’m gonna take a good recommendation from Dana White. I learned, you know. I’m always learning and Dana said you need… special scissors, and okay, I will get it… He’s right, I understand, man. He was scared. Of course, this is a big event and I’m sure when he saw I had a cut on my eye and of course, all the people were panicking and I’m sure he was also a little bit scared [for O’Malley-Dvalishvili being canceled],” he said.

Given the fact that Suga knows where he is injured, do you think Merab Dvalishvili is in danger?