If Merab Dvalishvili wins at UFC 323, he’ll add a fourth title defense to his championship resume in 2025 and he’s already painfully close to completely clearing out the bantamweight division. But does that mean featherweight is in his immediate future?
While Dvalishvili downplayed that possibility after beating Cory Sandhagen in October, his head coach John Wood acknowledges that calls for a move to 145 pounds are definitely getting louder. A quick look at the UFC’s bantamweight rankings show Dvalishvili has beaten four out of the top five ranked fighters with two wins over Sean O’Malley and he’s now going for a second win over Petr Yan on Dec. 6.
That said, Wood believes Dvalishvili still has a “victory lap” to run at 135-pounds before truly considering a change in weight classes.
“Those questions [about featherweight] are already coming up,” Wood told MMA Fighting. “For me, I want Merab to be the greatest bantamweight ever. In my mind, I don’t think there’s a question, he already is. I just don’t think we’re going to see another one of him for a while. I think he needs to beat everybody in that top 10 and hang out for a while, break the records and then when it makes sense and it makes monetary sense, it makes sense for his legacy, then potentially those things come through.
“But there is no point right now. Making weight sucks, everybody hates making weight. He’s clearly not a fan of that, that’s the worst part but he’s still got to make weight if he goes up to [145 pounds]. It’s not like he’s walking around at 145. He’s still going to have to cut weight either way. But there are some potentially massive superfights if these things keep going the way they go.”
The conflict that kept Dvalishvili from possibly winning the belt at bantamweight even sooner would also exist at featherweight now that his friend and teammate Aljamain Sterling is ranked in the top 10 in that division.
But that’s not even in the thought process now because Wood believes there are still plenty of challenges to keep Dvalishvili motivated and defending his bantamweight title.
That doesn’t mean the day won’t come if Dvalishvili continues to run roughshod over the division that he won’t consider a move up to 145 pounds.
“I think in two or three more fights, then we’re making starting to have those conversations,” Wood said. “But I think we have an easy three, four more fights hopefully in this division before that has to happen or somebody comes and says ‘we’re going to give you X amount of dollars to fight this person for X’ and it’s a life changing situation for him? I want his family’s kids, kids, kids secured. Then you start making those kinds of decisions where it’s like this is worth it.
“But I think you’re going to see Merab break all the records and I do think we’ll see superfights in the future but right now I want to keep him focused on what he needs to do. Easy three or four more fights at bantamweight where it makes sense and then if we destroy everybody through there then it’s like all right, let’s go up and test this and go from there.”
First things first, Dvalishvili has to get through Yan again after he scored a lopsided decision win over the Russian in their first encounter.
Wood expects Dvalishvili to get the job done but just like what happened in the rematch with O’Malley back in June, he believes “The Machine” could do even better the second time around.
“I don’t see a world where Merab doesn’t win it,” Wood said about the Yan fight. “Anything can happen, I don’t try to shit talk or try to diminish the skill set. Yan is a great fighter. Again, I’m a big fan of Petr Yan. If not for Merab, he’s in title contention same thing with [Cory] Sandhagen. I’m a fan of these guys, I like watching them. I like their coaches. They’re very well coached guys.
“But I just don’t see right now, Merab has only gotten better — not saying Yan hasn’t gotten better, I’m not in that camp, I don’t know. But Merab has gotten better and by that time, he will get better. If you go back and watch what happened in that [first] fight, this Merab finishes that Petr Yan no problem in multiple different ways.”
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