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Merab Dvalishvili caught the entire fighting community by surprise when he dominated the Octagon against the previously undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311. He didn’t just win the bout and defend his title against the Dagestani phenom, but he missed no chance to mock the Dagestani team. But there was one instance that caused the entire fighting world to take up arms in support of the bantamweight champ. 

Following the win by a unanimous decision, ‘The Machine’ climbed up on the cage and celebrated his victory. Well, that’s something almost every other fighter does after winning a bout. However, this time, Dvalishvili was almost caught in a terrible mishap. When the Georgian fighter was on the fence, a California State Athletic Commission official tried to pull him down from the cage. Of course, Dvalishvili was caught off-guard and almost lost his balance. Nevertheless, the champion seemed to let it go. 

But his coach, John Wood, wasn’t one to let such things slide. During his appearance on Submission Radio, the coach said, “The guy just tried to yank him down and almost pulled him off the cage. And man, you know, like, what a jacka– thing to do. But it is what it is, you know, like you’re not supposed to get on the cage, I guess. What I’m saying is it wasn’t a very smart move to do. There’s ways to get a person off the cage, you know, other than pull them onto the back of their head.”

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The risk of injury for Dvalishvili was pretty high. Had he fallen from the cage because of the tug, he could have opened up the messy cut in his leg. And that’s the other slip-up by CSAC. A fighter with an infected injury shouldn’t have been allowed to compete in the first place. But ‘The Machine’ played a trick to let them do so.

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Merab Dvalishvili revealed a huge mess-up by CSAC

During his recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s talk show, Dvalishvili revealed, “I was worried the commission was not going to let me fight. And I was doing everything, putting creams [on the injury] every day, doing massage and all the therapies. California has a very strict commission, and they check everything on my body. Thursday, I have pants on, and the commission guy asked me to show him my leg. To show to the shin. And I lift my left leg pants, and show him shin. He kept talking, and then once again asked me to show him the other leg. I show, again, left leg. And then he done and never knew about the cut.”

What’s your perspective on:

Did CSAC's blunder put Merab Dvalishvili's safety at risk, or was it just a minor slip-up?

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Although Dvalishvili succeeded in fooling the CSAC official by showing him the same leg twice, he was worried because the injury looked fresh, even though he received the cut a long while back. It was a cut that he received while working out on his cardio on a set of stairs. One mishap and he crashed down, with his leg getting sliced at two places. He revealed the details of his injury only after getting a win over Nurmagomedov.

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Well, ‘The Machine’ did receive 27 stitches to close the cut. But little did he know that it would get infected. Regardless of the pain it must have caused, he wrapped his leg up in bandages and kept training. Maybe that’s the reason why he didn’t use his right leg enough at UFC 311. As if blessed by fate, his cut closed during UFC 311 fight week. But the world won’t forget the mess-up by CSAC any time soon. 

Do you think the California State Athletic Commission was doing to bad job at UFC 311? What are your thoughts on the way the CSAC officials treated Dvalishvili? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.

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Did CSAC's blunder put Merab Dvalishvili's safety at risk, or was it just a minor slip-up?