Recently minted number-one ranked UFC bantamweight contender, Merab Dvalishvili was in attendance at UFC Fight Night San Antonio last weekend – watching on as fellow contenders, Marlon Vera, and Cory Sandhagen headlined – before jumping into the attending audience to confont a fan who was trash-talking him at the end of the card.
Dvalishvili, who most recently took main event honors himself at UFC Fight Night Las Vegas earlier this month, leapfrogged Montana native, Sean O’Malley into the number one rank at 135lbs – courtesy of a dominant unanimous decision victory over former undisputed bantamweight champion, Petr Yan.
Expected to lay in wait to see the outcome of May’s undisputed bantamweight title fight between training partner, Aljamain Sterling, and the returning former duel-weight champion, Henry Cejudo – Merab Dvalishvili admitted that he would not fight his teammate, Sterling if offered the opportunity by the organization.
Taking umbrage with Dvalishvili’s stance on his next fight, UFC president, Dana White claimed that it would be massive mistake for the Tbilisi to deny the chance to fight Sterling for Octagon gold in the future.
“That’s a personal decision he (Merab Dvalishvili) needs to make,” Dana White said. “If that’s what he wants to do, I can tell you how that story ends. It’s not a good ending to that story. But, he’s a big boy, he can figure that out on his own.”
“You can still be friends and want what your friend has,” Dana White explained. “It would be a really bad idea for Merab to go down that path [avoiding Aljamain Sterling].”
Merab Dvalishvili confronts a trash-talking fan at UFC San Antonio
Reaching boiling point over the weekend in Texas, Dvalishvili attempted to scale his way into the bleachers at the AT&T Center after a fan – shouting expletives in his direction.
“Motherf*cker, I will f*ck your face,” Merab Dvlishvili shouted at the fan filming who trashed talked him for refusing to fight Uniondale native and teammate, Aljamain Sterling for the UFC bantamweight title.
Following the conclusion of the main event, Dvalishvili was the subject of a call out from the surging, Cory Sandhagen – who snapped the streak of the #3 ranked, Marlon Vera with an impressive, one-sided split decision victory in the ‘Lone Star State’.