Merab Dvalishvili with his world-class wrestling and indomitable spirit will take on champ Sean O’Malley‘s sublime striking in the main event on UFC Noche (306) this weekend. The ever-confident Georgian, of course, is sure that he will beat the Montana native.

But, a very legitimate note of caution has been sounded by O’Malley’s last opponent, Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera, who fears the fight may be over quickly. Speaking to reporters about the bout, ‘Chito’ pointed out how ‘The Machine’ has somewhat of a knack for being knocked down early, as was done by Henry Cejudo (who is not even a striker) in his UFC 298 bout with Dvalishvili.

This, Vera fears may spell doom for the Georgian against ‘Suga’, who is perhaps the best striker in the promotion and even the entire sport at the moment. Not to mention O’Malley has predicted an early knockout of ‘The Machine’ precisely because of this. However, Dvalishvili doesn’t see it as an issue and feels he is made of sterner stuff. ‘The Machine’ joined Cejudo and his Kamaru Usman on their ‘Pound 4 Pound’ podcast to address these concerns.

“Listen I may get caught. I don’t care, I’m gonna eat and I’m going to come. I’m going to wake up and I’m going to come even more hard, you know. This is I can control. You know things happen, we are fighters and sometimes, you know, the clip can happen but I’m going to try to avoid his punches. But even if he hits me, I don’t think he can knock me out and then I will come even more hard and he’s going to be in trouble, you know,” he said.

While Dvalishvili frankly admitted that he may get knocked down by O’Malley in their clash, he was clear on one thing– he would only come back stronger and harder at the champ. And it is precisely this never-give-up, never-back-down attitude of ‘The Machine’ that one of the greatest UFC champs has the vote of confidence of an all-time great.

Alexander Volkanovski thinks Merab’s grit will be too much for ‘Suga’ to handle

Former featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski has predicted that Merab Dvalishvili will emerge as the new bantamweight champion after UFC 306. Why? Because ‘Volk’ sees a bit of himself in the Georgian and believes his “never die attitude” would be enough to grind down O’Malley. Even if ‘The Machine’ is vulnerable to being hit and being knocked down, the Aussie feels that simply isn’t enough to keep someone like Dvalishvili down or even slow him down.

“Is he (Dvalishvili) going to be open to being hit? Yes… But his relentless takedown pressure… I think he’s going to eventually get it unless he gets knocked out. I don’t care how good your footwork is, you’re not going to keep Merab away from you unless you put his lights out,” ‘Alexander The Great’ told fans on his YouTube channel.

And that is exactly what the #1 ranked bantamweight has proven in his UFC career so far, and the reason he has won ten fights in a row and is days away from fighting for a UFC title, which is the biggest distinction in our sport. What are your predictions for O’Malley-Dvalishvili.