After the second victory over Sean O'Malley at UFC 316, Merab Dvalishvili strengthened the position of his UFC chicken championship more strongly.
This time, he not only ended “Suga” with a struggle in the third half, but also ready to stand with the American star in the first two rounds. A testament to the progress makes “The Machine” become dangerous and difficult to beat.
After wiping out names like Sean O'Malley, Umar Nurmagomedov and a series of former champions, Merab also expressed interest in Cory Sandhagen – the candidate he had never confronted in the top 5 of weight class.
“Cory is a great boxer, I like to watch him. I think he is an entertainment martial artist, with many skills that are difficult to handle. But I don't believe there will be anything different from what Merab has seen. I think those things are something we will find very interesting when experiencing, a good match. But I can tell you: Merab will win.” – Merab Dvalishvili's coach John Wood has made a “sandman” statement.
“I felt that we had hit that style. He was so hard with many tactics. But as I said, I knew Merab and knew what he could be and would do. Always interesting when he was a coach on a tactical in front of such an opponent. He had a great team, a great coach, all of which were interesting in the opponent.”
“I have no problem if I am in Vegas, maybe in October. September will be a bit more folded, at the end of October will be a good time, just give Merab a chance if he really wants to fight 2 more games, as soon as possible. But I want to fight in Vegas where he is at home and doesn't have to move.”
The confidence of coach John Wood is grounded, when another student of him, Aljamain Sterling – the former Chicken Championship once defeated Cory Sandhagen quickly with a tightening blow. However, that story happened 5 years ago, and the current Cory was a very different name.
Despite the defeat to Umar Nurmagomedov, which led to the loss of a belt painting in the hands of the Russian boxer, Cory immediately returned with a “knee” to defeat Deiveson Figueiredo in May.
Cory's resistance was well shown in the confrontation with Umar, in return he was somewhat inferior to the opponent's standing technique. In his history, in addition to defeating Umar Nurmagomedov, Cory Sandhagen lost only to champions/former champions such as Petr Yan, Alajmain Sterling or defeat against TJ Dillashaw.