A fan in San Antonio, Texas quickly learned why you shouldn’t talk trash to UFC fighters in person when he criticized Dvalishvili for refusing to fight his friend Aljamain Sterling.
Merab Dvalishvili has a reputation for being a bit of a wild man, and he lived up to that once again in San Antonio during UFC on ESPN 43.
The No. 1 ranked bantamweight Dvalishvili was on hand to watch No. 3 Marlon Vera and No. 5 Cory Sandhagen battle it out in the main event. Sandhagen would utilize his range and wrestling to stifle Vera’s striking game, earning him a split decision win (watch the highlights here). Following the victory, “The Sandman” called Merab out, and “The Machine” quickly accepted the challenge.
That’s not the only scrap Dvalishvili was willing to accept that night. A video circulating around social media showed what appears to be a rude fan criticizing the UFC athlete for refusing to fight his good friend and 135 pound champ Aljamain Sterling. Merab didn’t even wait for the dude to finish taunting him before jumping up into the stands and attempting to climb towards the offender.
“Right here, baby,” the unidentified man said at first.
“Motherf—er, I will f— your face,” Dvalishvili declared as security guards attempted to pull him back down to the arena floor.
“Woah, woah, woah!” the man exclaimed as Merab dragged himself up into his section.
“Merab Dvalishvili you’re coming at the wrong dude,” the fan wrote in a caption over the video. “You’ll have to see Funkmaster soon. Stop dunking [sic] b—h.”
Merab was ready to throw HANDS pic.twitter.com/CzYuZ0z7BT
— Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) March 26, 2023
UFC president Dana White has criticized Dvalishvili for stating he will never fight Sterling because the two are close friends and training partners.
“It would be a really bad idea for Merab to go down that path,” White said after Dvalishvili beat Petr Yan for his ninth UFC win in a row. “Does Merab want a shot at the title, or would Merab rather have people under him jump over him and him have to take on all these different tough guys?”
“That’s a personal decision that he needs to make 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.”
It seems like some fans agree with White’s stance on the subject, and this one guy was foolish enough to criticize Merab to his face about it.