The main event of UFC 306 was a dominating victory for Merab Dvalishvili, but there were some unusual moments throughout the bout.
The first incident occurred early in the first round, when referee Herb Dean stopped the bout to warn both Dvalishvili and Tim Welch about their interactions during the bout, which Dvalishvili said coach Sean O’Malley was trying to distract him from his cageside position.
“I’m a professional fighter,” Dvalishvili said at the post-fight press conference, “I’m focused, so this doesn’t happen to me, I don’t pay attention to the other corner, but Tim’s voice sounded familiar, because he was doing the same thing. [Aljamain
Sterling at UFC 292]There is a video on social media that everyone has seen, of him doing the same thing. He had already been disrespectful. “Merab, you have to go.”
“He was swearing at me. I told him, ‘Stop it.’ Nobody told him to stop. He just kept doing it. If you do that in basketball or football, you’re disqualified. But I don’t think that’s the case here. I told the ref, ‘I’m sorry.’ … I think once I said sorry, he stopped doing it.”
The second incident came late in the second round, when Dvalishvili kissed O’Malley’s neck while attempting a rear-naked choke. It nearly ended in disaster as the Georgian let go before the horn, but O’Malley used the opportunity to fight back with punches just before the end of the round. It was all in good fun for Dvalishvili.
“I grabbed him by the neck and he only had 10 seconds. I know he can wait and he’s not going to sleep or tap out. [to] “I just want to tease him a little bit,” Dvalishvili said. “I don’t hate him, I’m just teasing him. But at the same time, I want to give him a little kiss and show him that I have the upper hand. I’m going to control this fight and beat you. So I kissed him. I was having so much fun that I tried to control the time, but when I let go, he came after me and hit me in the back of the head. I started defending myself again. I said, [to the] The umpire said again, “Sorry, umpire.”
Dvalishvili was entertaining for much of the bout and never really looked threatened until the final seconds when O’Malley hurt him with a front kick to the body, but it was too late, as “The Machine” easily won the bantamweight belt by unanimous decision.
“The initial emotions were crazy, I couldn’t contain myself,” Dvalishvili said. “When Dana White put the belt around me and I stood up, I realized that Dana was already gone. I wanted to hold his hand and feel it. Now I understand. Now I understand. It feels great. I’ve beaten other guys, three former champions. Shawn is four. It’s a normal day. It’s a normal day, but today I have the belt. And that’s it.”
Dvalishvili didn’t have much time to bask in the victory, however, as top contender Umar Nurmagomedov was in attendance and the fighter was forced to think about the possibility of facing the Dagestan native in his first title defence.
“Umar’s OK,” Dvalishvili said, “but he’s only won one fight out of the top 15, and that was against Cory Sandhagen. We all know what Aljamain Sterling did to Cory Sandhagen. He put him to sleep in the first round.”
