If the words ‘hard work’ were a person, it would be Merab Dvalishvili. No one expected the Georgian powerhouse to ever come close to a UFC title after he lost his first two promotional fights. But through sheer resilience and pouring every ounce of his blood, sweat, and tears into his training, ‘The Machine’ has become the UFC’s reigning bantamweight champion.

In fact, his nickname, ‘The Machine’, is a perfect encapsulation of his work ethic. But shockingly, the Georgian had actually retired from fighting after three fights, as he told MMA coach extraordinaire, Eric Nicksick on the latter’s podcast. But why did the Georgian bid adieu to MMA (temporarily) after three professional fights?

The answer is simple! It was because of the disastrous way his career began. The current 135lbs kingpin lost two of his first three fights in a regional promotion, which made him feel like he wasn’t cut out for professional MMA and retire in 2014. “Did you retire at that moment [after going 1-2 in your first three fights] because I remember Aljo [Aljamain Sterling] when we had him on, he said that you retired at one point,” Nicksick’s co-host asked Dvalishvili.

“That was the moment… I’m like I’m done,” the champ agreed. “At that time, I was thinking, ‘If I lost here, in Ring of Combat, I was 1-2… How am I gonna win in the UFC?'”

After a year of sitting out, ‘The Machine’ missed the competitiveness and the thrill of fighting, and decided to come back. However, with his horrid record, he didn’t even think of fighting in the top promotions and had much less ambitious goals than becoming a UFC champion.

“But I said, ‘Win or lose, I’ll keep fighting.’ …Maybe, hopefully, I could pick up my immigration papers and then fight in China. As long as they covered my flight, I could fight in China or Russia. …I forgot about the UFC or Bellator,” Dvalishvili added. Thankfully things took a dramatic turn for the better for him.

How did ‘The Machine’ reach the pinnacle of MMA?

After losing two of his first three fights, all of them in 2014, Merab Dvalishvili returned to the cage in 2016. This time around, however, things went very differently. ‘The Machine’ went on a tear, winning his next four fights in a row, which earned him a ‘Ring Of Combat’ title shot.

The Georgian won the title and defended it once, which earned him a call-up to the UFC. However, as we’ve already mentioned, he lost his first two fights in the promotion and was written off entirely as not good enough for the MMA juggernaut. But in what has become a theme of his career, ‘The Machine’ went on another tear.

Dvalishvili has won all of his eleven subsequent fights in the UFC, including a dominant win over Sean O’Malley at UFC 306 in a first-of-its-kind event, perhaps never again to be recreated in a combat sports event. And now he is set to fight the undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov who comes from the most prestigious camp in the entire MMA world.

A win against Umar would make Dvalishvili perhaps the greatest bantamweight champion of recent times. On the other hand, even if ‘The Machine’ loses to Umar, we all know what is coming next. What do you think about Dvalishvili retiring after three fights?