[autotag]Merab Dvalishvili[/autotag] is not bothered by [autotag]Dana White[/autotag] calling him “next-level stupid” for sharing footage of a cut around his eye being stitched up just weeks prior to his UFC 306 title fight.
Dvalishvili (17-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) sustained a laceration that required multiple stitches roughly three weeks prior to when he steps into the octagon to challenge Sean O’Malley (18-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) for the bantamweight title at Noche UFC, which goes down Sept. 14 at Sphere in Las Vegas (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPNews).
White went on a classic tirade against Dvalishvili after the footage surfaced, questioning why he would offer up a target to O’Malley so close to their championship fight. Plenty of others in the MMA community offered the same criticism, but none of it bothered Dvalishvili.
“I never regret what I did,” Dvalishvili told MMA Junkie on Tuesday. “I post this because I post everything in my social media. It wasn’t a big deal because I had more than three weeks when I got cut, and I know that my cut will take five days to heal up, and then this cut didn’t affect my training, my sparring – nothing. As you see, I’m healed up. Everything is good.
“When I saw Dana was upset, of course I don’t want to upset Dana White and UFC or do something like that. But I was very calm and relaxed because it wasn’t a big deal. I don’t regret nothing. This is who I am, this is what I do, and this is my life. That’s why I’m a fighter, and this is my life and what I do.”
The following week after posting himself being stitched, Dvalishvili shared another video removing his own stitches with an oversized pair of scissors. White reacted again, wondering if the Georgian is simply messing with him.
Dvalishvili, who was wearing a Dana White’s Contender Series T-shirt in the video, explained what happened and said it was not an attempt to troll the UFC CEO.
“That’s how I always do,” Dvalishvili said. “I get cut all the time, and I take the stitches out myself. It was normal for me to take stitches out by myself. I realized later it was big, big scissors, but at first when I take the stitches out, I was trying to take them out with a knife. But then the knife wasn’t cutting, and it was very painful, and I used scissors. Sorry I don’t have small scissors. I don’t know. Whatever.”
Ultimately, Dvalishvili thinks the entire drama is a non-issue. He understands the UFC’s concern about its main event being in jeopardy for an event with more than $20 million in production costs, but Dvalishvili is not worried about the cut easily opening on fight night. In fact, he thinks the storyline only added intrigue to the showdown with O’Malley.
“I understand for sure,” Dvalishvili said. “I understand, but as I said, this is who I am and what I do, and I don’t regret nothing. Now everybody knows everything is good, and now it’s even worked out better because it got more people to panic, more people to pay attention for our fight.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 306.