Khalil Rountree can attest to Merab Dvalishvili being one of one.
The two share a head coach in John Wood, who was in their respective corners at UFC 320 this past Saturday to witness Dvalishvili’s latest title triumph as he defended his bantamweight belt against Cory Sandhagen, as well as Rountree’s devastating third-round knockout loss to Prochazka.
That working relationship means Rountree is privy to Dvalishvili’s behind-the-scenes preparation and he was blown away by what he saw the bantamweight champion do just hours before his fight with Sandhagen.
“Merab in the gym, it’s really hard to say that he’s any different in the gym than he is in the cage,” Rountree said on the JAXXON podcast. “I promise you this is a 100 percent true story. At 12:00 in the afternoon on fight day, Saturday, Oct. 4, Merab sparred five rounds in the cage. Live. On the day of his fight. Because that’s just who he is.”
Dvalishvili has earned a legendary reputation for having an endless gas tank, which along with his powerful wrestling and rapidly improving striking, has positioned him as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters of this era. Despite Sandhagen putting on a valiant effort against Dvalishvili, the defending champion nearly finished Sandhagen with strikes in the second round and eventually cruised to a decision victory.
Suffice to say, Rountree was in awe of what he saw from Dvalishvili on fight day.
“Five full live rounds at 12:00, not even half a day before he has to be in the arena to put on the biggest fight of his career,” Rountree said. “That’s just him. You cannot make it up.
“So to be around that, it’s just another experience. Most guys will sit in the hotel room or try to collect their thoughts or do whatever. Maybe even get a bike ride in on the assault bike to kind of burn some energy. I’ve never in my life seen somebody spar five full rounds the day that they have to fight and go do another five full rounds with a Cory Sandhagen. He’s a different breed, but like he says, he shows up to the gym the same way he shows up to fight night. It’s interesting to be around, but it’s great.”
As for Rountree’s own fight at UFC 320, he found himself on the opposite end of the octagon with a different kind Jiri Prochazka. Rountree out-struck the unpredictable Prochazka for two rounds, but succumbed to strikes in the third when Prochazka entered full berserker mode.
Rountree has said on multiple occasions he has no interest in replicating his title fight with Alex Pereira, who left a spirited Rountree with several facial injuries in the aftermath. Asked what he thinks might have been going through Prochazka’s head when he ramped up his offense, Rountree could only speculate.
“Even in my pre-fight interviews and stuff, I didn’t ask for this type of fight,” Rountree said. “I didn’t want this type of fight. That wasn’t my plan. I knew that it could go there, I wasn’t going to shy away from it, but I wasn’t asking for it. … Whatever he was going through in those moments—because I know that he ate some big shots, I know that there was some doubts, I know that there was some moments from his end where he was like, ‘Oh, damn’—so maybe there was something that he had to pull from. Maybe he had to go to a dark place to be able to land a good left hook and he had to tell himself that it was necessary to have to go there, otherwise he wouldn’t have won the fight.
“That’s how I see it, but I’m just an observer. I don’t know what it means.”
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