30 August 2023
UFC President, Dana White, expressed his opinion on Merab Dvalishvili, who currently ranks second in the UFC bantamweight division.
UFC President Dana White expressed his disappointment with Merab Dvalishvili, who, in his opinion, is too worried about the possibility of a rematch between his friend Aljamain Sterling and Sean O’Malley. White thinks Dvalishvili should focus on demanding a title fight with a new champion in his weight class.
" I don't like what he thinks about this sh*t. I just hate it,” White said at a press conference in Las Vegas. "If you came into this sport to be the best in the world, then why don't you want to fight for the championship belt? Why do you want to just be friends?"
" In this business, you can find friends everywhere - there are a lot of great people here. But sport is not about friendship, it's about who is the best in the world. If you're not interested in knowing who's the best, then you don't belong here. You should look for another place where no one cares what you do.»
Aljamain Sterling lost his championship belt on August 19 at UFC 292 in Boston to a second-round TKO loss to Sean O’Malley. The new weight class champion has already announced his first title defense against Maron Vera, who previously defeated Sterling and is the only one to defeat him in his entire career.
After his title fight, Merab Dvalishvili made several controversial statements. He first announced his readiness to challenge Sean O’Malley, and then clarified that he would only do so if Sterling was not given a rematch. He also called Sterling's defeat accidental and expressed confidence that he would easily regain his title and defeat O’Malley in any of the ten cases.
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