Merab Dvalishvili eyeing superfights should he win RAF 12 and UFC belts: 'I can fight at 155 too'

Merab Dvalishvili has one of the greatest MMA engines of all-time. 

You know it. I know it. Heck, his UFC rivals can’t help but recognize it publicly.

But this past July, against Henry Cejudo at the RAF Georgia event in Tbilisi, Georgia, we saw Dvalishvili rely on something else: an extraordinary never-say-die attitude that arose at a time in which it would have been far easier to roll over. That’s testicular fortitude and championship mettle. 

Cejudo was on the cusp of embarrassing Dvalishvili. He was up 8-0 in their wrestling match and threatening to win via tech fall. A single takedown would have sealed it. It was as close to complete and utter domination as anyone could imagine, and it was happening in front of Dvalishvili’s friends, family and fans in his home country.

Somehow, though, Cejudo snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. 

And, yeah … it’s easy to point to how Cejudo lost. But it also came down to how “The Machine” won. Dvalishvili, you see, mounted an unreal comeback — one sparked from his indomitable spirit and a relentless attack that fatigued the Olympic champion the longer the match went on. 

“I was lucky because it was almost over,” Dvalishvili recalled to Uncrowned ahead of their rematch, an RAF 12 lightweight crossover championship bout this Saturday at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.

Dvalishvili said he remembers seeing the near-insurmountable scoreline and thinking, “I don’t want to regret anything. I’ll try my best and take my time, even losing 8-0.”

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Merab Dvalishvili rematches Henry Cejudo this Saturday at RAF 12.

With a desperation single-leg takedown in the second round, and Cejudo then getting put on the shot clock, the momentum swung wildly as Dvalishvili closed the gap to just three points away, 8-5. In the third period, Dvalishvili kept that same momentum going, putting Cejudo on his back to pick up another four of his nine total consecutive points. One last takedown sealed Cejudo’s fate: 11-8. Improbably, Dvalishvili had done it.

“I was patient,” Dvalishvili said. “He has a lot of experience. Wrestling is his world, he’s the Olympic champion for a reason, but my cardio is better. I tricked him and it turned into my fight. I got some points back and I was just pressuring him. I was happy, as I can’t lose in front of my people. Great moments and great memories.”

Dvalishvili has the chance to create more memories on Saturday. 

If he wins again at RAF 12, it’ll be his third triumph over Cejudo, having also beaten the former two-division UFC champion by unanimous decision at UFC 298 in Anaheim, California two years ago.

Despite his successes, Dvalishvili refuses to count a third win just yet.

“Henry realized the mistakes he made, and why he lost. I’m sure he saw some holes in my game and he’s going to make some changes,” he said.

“I’m nervous. Nervous because Henry is a good wrestler, and even though a loss against him is no big deal, I still don’t want to lose. It’s going to be a very hard match because he’s so dangerous, such a good wrestler. If I fight him, I am happy, but this is wrestling, and even with the wrestling experience, I learned he’s so dangerous and that he can beat me. So I worry even more now after our RAF match.”

Dvalishvili said it was Cejudo who called for this rematch, but the reason Dvalishvili accepted was because of the hardware at stake — the RAF crossover belt, something he wants to wrap around his waist before he returns to the Octagon to challenge Petr Yan in another trilogy for the UFC bantamweight title on Oct. 24 at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi.

RAF offers elite MMA fighters the chance to remain active, against considerable competition, in a format that Dvalishvili said only enhances his wrestling abilities — from takedown entries to scrambling. They are newfound skills he can use against Yan, whom he lost to in December.

“I’m getting better in wrestling, which was not a focus before right now,” Dvalishvili said. “I’m learning all these new details that will only help me against Yan, to take him down or defend takedowns.”

Dvalishvili hopes the improvements he’s making are useful enough to pull ahead in his rivalry with Yan.

Their sequence of fights began in 2021 at UFC 267, where Dvalishvili won in a rout. He lost the rematch four years later in a stunner, ceding the bantamweight title to Yan, which evened the scoreline to 1-1.

If Dvalishvili beats Yan for a second time, it only enhances his claim as MMA’s bantamweight GOAT.

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Merab Dvalishvili and Petr Yan will settle their rivalry on Oct. 24 at UFC 333.

That’s the prize driving him past Saturday, and past Oct. 24 too — not just the rematch win, but a matching set of championships around his waist.

“I will be at peace to have both belts — RAF and UFC,” he said. “I want to just win against Yan, then I can take some time off and whoever will be the next contender, I will fight the best of the best guys.”

That leaves the door open for UFC bantamweight challengers like Mauro Bautista. Like Song Yadong. Maybe even an Umar Nurmagomedov rematch.

From there, maybe Dvalishvili finally answers calls to move weight classes. 

He’s been working with nutritionists at the UFC Performance Institute to determine whether his next weight cut can be easier than his past few. If it is, maybe he stays at bantamweight. If it’s not, it perhaps hastens a move to featherweight.

But, as Dvalishvili said himself, while he rules out fighting his friends — the UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, or Aljamain Sterling — “featherweight is no problem” for him, especially, he said, if it was for a superfight.

“The only guy I always wanted to fight was Sean O’Malley, because I saw him as a challenge,” he said. “A superstar. I always wanted to fight that guy. Thank God I fought him for the belt two times, [but] I don’t have names like that [anymore].”

And so, while he’s loath to single anyone out, the fact that he longs for a superfight could pave the way for matchups involving the likes of Max Holloway, at featherweight or lightweight. “I can fight at 155 [pounds], too,” Dvalishvili confirmed.

Whether the UFC presents a superfight to his liking, or one he’d rather avoid, remains to be seen. But the willingness is there. Two belts, then, might not be the finish line for Dvalishvili. It just sounds like where the next stage of his career really begins.