The UFC bantamweight had an eventful (and bloody) day out on the water.
Merab Dvalishvili is currently riding high on a five fight winning streak that has seen him launch up to 12th in the UFC’s bantamweight rankings. The Georgian transplant, who live in Long Island and trains with the Serra-Longo Fight Team, recently took to Instagram to show what he is doing in his free time.
The 16-4 fighter showed his fans that he attempted a ‘polar dip’ in a frigid pond. However ‘The Machine’ soon discovered that this pond was more than frigid, it was completely frozen over. Check the video below to see what happens when Dvalishvili’s head met solid ice.
In his post Dvalishvili also included footage of his head pouring blood after the incident as well as him receiving staples to close the wound.
“I thought a great day to train and run in the park. Then I saw a pond, which I thought was snow and water,” wrote Dvalishvili. “BUT it turned out to be all ice and tree branches sticking out. As soon as I broke threw the ice I felt my skin peeling off. BUT nothing more painful than when they stapled my skin back together! It’s all good now … feeling great.”
Dvalishvili has been in the UFC since 2017. His Octagon tenure didn’t start out well, his first two fights were losses; a split decision to Frankie Saenz and a technical submission to Ricky Simon.
Since then he found his grove beating Terrion Ware, Brad Katona, Casey Kenney, Gustavo Lopez and, most recently, John Dodson.
Dvalishvili was supposed to fight Cody Stamman at tomorrow’s UFC Vegas 18 event, but he was pulled from the card due to his recent bout with COVID-19.