In two weeks, Merab Dvalishvili is meant to defend his bantamweight title in a rematch against Sean O’Malley on June 8 at UFC 316 in New Jersey.
However, this has been put in jeopardy as a video of Merab Dvaliahvili’s broken toe was originally shared by vato.gv.
As the image demonstrates, Dvalishvili’s toe got compromised during a training session, with 4-0 teammate Cameron Sandoval getting half the blame in a light-hearted confrontation, after the incident..
“Why did you break my toe, my friend?” Merab Dvalishvili asked his teammate, with Sandoval replying, saying, “That was you, you kicked me in the head and broke your toe. That’s just wrong.”
Dvalishvili continued the carefree reaction to what could be detrimental to his UFC 316 bout, saying he was going to “cut the toe off.”
This is not Merab’s first rodeo when it comes to dealing with severe injuries before his bouts, as this has occurred in his previous two title fights. In his previous bout with Umar Nurmagomedov, Dvalishvili had an infected leg, showcased via a huge scar visible in the title fight. He also had a cut on his face in the first fight against Sean O’Malley, which was also called in training right before the bout.
The release of this footage is set to anger boss Dana White, who did not react kindly when the bantamweight champion caused similar issues at UFC 306.
“Our guys are so dumb it’s next level,” said an angered Dana White about Dvalishvili “All the stuff that I talk about boxing—what I will give boxing is, when something happens in a camp, man, let me tell you what: it does not leak.”
As of right now, the title fight has not been called off and if Dvalishvili’s track record is anything to go by, we should still see this rematch commence at UFC 316, New Jersey.
