As the dust settles after UFC 316, rightful questions about Merab Dvalishvili place amongst the bantamweight greatest have risen following his dominant third-round submission win against Sean O’Malley in his second defence of his UFC title. Merab’s résumé is a murderer’s row of some of the best bantamweights in the UFC’s history, and he is undoubtedly in the conversation with the greatest bantamweights in the company’s history, with his opponent, O’Malley singing the praises of the Georgian.
Sean O’Malley was very complimentary about Merab’s legacy within the bantamweight division. Speaking on his YouTube channel, he said, “I feel like I was able to show that (O’Malley’s improvement) this camp. But just being on the bottom, and I’ve trained with the best. we train with such good guys.” O’Malley went on to say “It’s so weird. He just felt so compact and strong in there. I couldn’t do much” labelling Merab as “greatest bantamweight of all time.” A comment like this from O’Malley is high praise considering O’Malley’s bantamweight pedigree.
How Merab compares to bantamweight legends
When speaking of the history of the UFC’s bantamweight division, a few contenders for the greatest fighter in the division stick out. Dominick Cruz’s name in particular stands out. He joined the UFC as the WEC Bantamweight champion, before winning the bantamweight title against Scott Jorgensen to win the UFC bantamweight title. Cruz would go onto defend his belt against Urijah Faber and Demetrious Johnson before vacating the title in 2014 due to injury. Cruz’s next title fight would see him defeat T.J. Dillashaw via decision, before he lost the belt against Cody Garbrandt, who deserves a mention for putting on one of the most impressive title performances of all time. Cruz was a well-rounded fighter, but he stood out with his peculiar movement and impressive speed on the feet, which made him a nightmare puzzle to solve.
Other fighters, such as Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan also deserve a mention in bantamweight GOAT conversation, with Sterling impressively defending the title three times despite winning the belt controversially against Yan. Yan himself has a pretty impressive CV, with the Russian sporting wins over Jose Aldo, Cory Sandhagen and Deiveson Figueiredo, with his late finish against Aldo securing him the title.
So, how does Merab compare? Merab is currently on a 13-fight winning streak, with Sean O’Malley, Umar Nurmagomedov, Petr Yan, among a plethora of others all tasting defeat against the Georgian. Merab is known for his relentless pace and using a combination of striking and grappling to wear down his opponents. Whilst he is not the most prolific finisher, he has grinded out wins against the very best of the division, and with two title defences on his record, he is undoubtedly in the conversation of Bantamweight GOAT.
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