Merab Dvalishvili Exclusive UFC 323 Interview

We spoke to UFC Bantamweight Champion and Stake Ambassador, Merab Dvalishvili, as he prepares for his main event bout against Petr Yan at UFC 323.

Merab will headline the event alongside fellow stake ambassador Alexandre Pantoja, live from Las Vegas, on Saturday 6th December.

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You haven't had much time since your last fight. How's training camp been? And did you go straight back into the gym, or did you take some time off?

So after my fight, I didn’t really take time off. I had some business meetings in Kuwait and I went on a little trip to New York, to see my family members and that’s when we got the news when I was on the Ariel Helwani show that I would be defending my belt again. After that I came back to Vegas and started training camp.

I was mentally ready, physically ready and I've been training hard since that.

This will be your fourth fight this year. Was that the plan at the start of 2025?

It wasn't planned to have four fights, but the plan was that I wanted to be busy and I wanted to get as many fights as possible. And that's what I told Hunter Campbell when I was in his office. I told him, hey, I want to be a busy champion, and please give me as many fights as you can. And I want to thank the UFC and Hunter for that, for keeping me busy. And now I guess it's a record now. But first I have to make the weight, Petr has to show up and I have to win, and then I will enjoy it all.

We don't see champions fighting this often. Do you think the champions should be required to fight twice a year?

I think twice a year is good. I think being a champion is different, with big training camps, but it's individual, you know, I'm different. I mean, I'd rather be busy and to fight four times a year!

The people who only fight two times a year. That's cool. I understand, and it makes makes sense.

On to your opponent. He said that in the last fight he was only 50 percent. Do you believe that's true or do you think he's just saying that?

Yeah, my job is to believe that and I have to take this world seriously. So he was 50 percent because I always respect my opponents and I always think that they are the next best challenge for me, even if I fought them or it's a new opponent for me. Because I have to, because we know it's an MMA fight and one punch can change everything or one wrong move can change everything. It's a sport and I have to expect the 50% better version of Petr Yan. And that means that I have to be better 50% as well. And that's why I work so hard every day. I have one more month to continue to work hard.

And talking about the last fight and the next fight, what did you take away from your first fight with him and how is it going to be different from you this time around?

So what I learned from my first fight against Petr, it was hard to take him down.

It was hard to control him and of course he's a great striker, but I beat him with pressure. But really it doesn’t matter, because for this fight he will change his style. He will fix his mistakes.

So now this time I will be a better version. I have to be a better version to beat him.

And people often say that he's got a really high fight IQ. Did you think that when you fought him last time?

Yes, it's true. He has a really high IQ. He trips people, takes people down, punches, drops people down and he's really smart, of course, he's a former champion. But our fight, no, his IQ wasn't working. I was beating him for all five rounds. But again, this doesn't mean that it's going to be the same. I'm going to be even better, because I know he will be better.

You beat the next four people in the rankings already. Say you do win your next fight. Who is next? Who do think will be next?

Yeah, I think Song Dayong is fighting somebody and if Song wins, I will fight him. I don't know. Whoever UFC chooses and whoever UFC puts in front of me, I want to fight him.

Now I'm fighting in December, right? And I will fight in March, you know, because realistically, I think in February, the fight will be in Australia and January is too soon. So March will be a realistic time for me. And so I would like to fight in March. Whatever the UFC puts in front of me, I will fight. And after that, I will be good for June. And then again, maybe try two more fights. So there will be four fights this year again.

You've been training with Demetrius Johnson recently. Say he was to come out of retirement. Do you think he could challenge for a title? Is he still looking good in the gym?

Yeah, he looks very good, he's very, very technical, very fast and of course, high fight IQ. And now he's training and focusing on Jiu-Jitsu, which is very important in MMA too. I don't think he will come back and challenge me, but listen, if UFC puts him in front of me, yeah, I have no problem fighting him.

But you know, I have so much respect for him. He's a great person, a great fighter and a great father as well.

Who do you think would win if DJ were to face off with Sean O’Malley?

I mean, yeah, so it's not a secret that Dimitrius Johnson would have to wrestle against O'Malley and O'Malley has to keep a long distance and strike with him. It would be an amazing fight.

We saw Umar beat Bautista recently. What did you think of his performance in that fight?

It was alright. I'm not impressed.

He says he's next in line to fight you. Do you think he's earned the rematch yet?

I don't think he’s earned it. But who am I? I don't make fights, the UFC makes fights!

Also on the main event is Pantoja. He's on an incredible win streak at the moment and there's not a lot of options at 135 because you're beating everyone. Would you welcome a fight with him if he was to move up a division?

Absolutely. Yeah, that would be an honour for me to fight him because he's been a great champion. He has a long winning streak, and he is a class act, who is always very respectful, as a fighter, and as a man. I respect him as a father too. He has a beautiful family and kids and he's a good father as well. And I have so much respect for him. If he wants to come in my weight division, no problem. Anytime, any day, anywhere, we can go to Brazil if he wants!

You're now widely considered the best bantamweight of all time. Do these labels mean anything to you?

Of course it feels great and people recognise my hard work and I'm just grateful for everything. But yeah, I'm not focused on these things because, you know me, I am still fighting, I'm still grinding, I'm still improving, I'm still getting better and I live Vegas here because I like to live humbly.

I'm always around with my friends and the people that I know. So everywhere I go, I realize how popular I am. And even when I go to any other country, in the airport, wherever I go, the people are jumping on me, taking pictures, or they're asking me for autographs. So here in Vegas, I always go to the same gym, and I always see the same people, and I don't see many crazy fans around me.

What I’m meaning is, everything is of course good and I'm grateful for that, but I'm a fighter and I'm still getting better. Once I finish fighting I will pay attention to that. But right now I'm trying to improve and I'm even trying to make new records and to be an even better fighter.

Do you ever think about whether you could break the all time consecutive wins record?

Yeah, of course. Actually I, when I look now how close I am, because I have a 14-fight win streak and then God willing if everything will be good and if I fight healthy and I win the fight, I could be number two with my winning streak and then just two more and I can beat the other one. But, you know, that's of course, that's something that I look for, but that is easy to say, it's hard to do. But that's why I work so hard to keep continuing this great journey and to put another good record in my resume.

Do you think you've done enough now to headline the UFC White House card next year? And if so, even as being on that card, what would it mean to you?

That will be a great honor for me and I will be grateful forever.

But, even though I'm an American citizen now and the only American Champion, I am still Georgian, and I think lots of great American fighters want to headline this event, and I think they deserve it more, people like Jon Jones.

And even Mike Perry was mentioning he wants to come back to UFC and fight, you know. So I'm sure a lot of people will want to be there. That would be an honor for me to just fight there and then to headline, that would be crazy. But who knows? We'll see.

Henry Cejudo recently said that Khabib wasn't above him in the all-time rankings. What do you think of that?

Henry is sometimes cringy with what he says. I don't know. I don't want to be disrespectful, Khabib was a great fighter and we all said how soon he retired, you know, but he left the sport unbeaten. And maybe that's why he's like the one of the greatest, but he's one of the greatest for sure. And yeah, I have so much respect for Khabib and what he has done for this sport. Henry did lots of great things as well, but Henry stayed in this world too long and we all see what has happened.

If you had to choose a 3-fight roadmap for 2026, who would you choose?

Yeah, I don't know who will be my next opponent. So, yeah, so I'm ready to fight in December. I already have an opponent in Petr Yan. And after that, I would like to fight in March. And after that, I would like to fight in June at the White House - it will be great. And after that, maybe, I guess, October again and December that would be perfect.

There's been a lot of conversation about the FBI investigation into the match-fixing allegations in the UFC. Do you have any thoughts on this or have you heard much about it?

Yeah, man, first when I heard this news, I was shocked because I watched this fight specifically. I was here last Saturday and watching these fights live and I know what I saw. The other guy was much bigger and he took his back and he was trying to choke. And then I know the commentators were criticizing Dugarian.

At first I thought the criticism was unfair because sometimes you still make some mistakes and you get choked out. So, and for me, the submission wasn't weird because even though I'm a grappler, I can make simple mistakes like that. But when I saw afterwards some Instagram influencer guy was talking about this saying how the fight was fixed. I actually commented on that too, like, shut up, what are you talking about? There are no fixed fights in the UFC, like, what are you talking about? And I was very mad, like, how dare you? But then after I saw that, I was breaking down everything, and then I was really shocked. Who knows, like if it's true or not, but even up until today, I don't believe it.

If somebody came to ask me and offered me $10 million, I will never sell them fights because I love this, it is my life. I'm a true true fighter, this is our career and we don’t do this kind of bullshit.

I hope this fight wasn't fixed. And then I don't believe that there are any fixed fights in the UFC.

It's unfortunate, but we'll see. We're all gonna find out if it's true or not. But yeah, so, and that's all I have to say.