Dana White has some profession recommendation for Merab Dvalishvili.
Following Dvalishvili’s spectacular win over former bantamweight champion Petr Yan in the principle occasion of UFC Las Vegas, White reacted to Dvalishvili’s vow by no means to battle his shut good friend, present bantamweight champ Aljamain Sterling. Dvalishvili has now received 9 straight fights, the longest lively streak within the UFC’s 135-pound division, however he has expressed zero curiosity in difficult Sterling for the title.
“I don’t bear in mind who the hell I used to be speaking to the opposite day about this and I used to be like, ‘We don’t must take care of that bulls*** anymore,’” White mentioned, chatting with the media at UFC APEX on Saturday evening. “Again within the early days, the camps had been so small you didn’t have a number of completely different choices, so we had a number of these guys saying, ‘Oh, he’s my good friend, he’s my good friend.’ You’ll be able to nonetheless be mates and wish what your good friend has.
“It might be a extremely unhealthy concept for Merab to go down that path.”
Previously, a number of high-profile contenders have spoken about not desirous to must battle mates to earn a shot on the title. American Kickboxing Academy was as soon as residence to a trio of welterweight contenders in Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck, and Mike Swick, all of whom often said they’d not battle each other (Fitch and Koscheck each challenged Georges St-Pierre for the UFC title at completely different factors of their careers).
Jon Jones and Rashad Evans memorably refused to battle each other after coaching, although their relationship devolved, and the 2 met in a lightweight heavyweight title bout at UFC 145.
No matter how White feels about Dvalishvili’s matchmaking selections, he had nothing however reward for the way the bantamweight contender carried out within the UFC Las Vegas fundamental occasion.
“Unbelievable battle,” White mentioned. “Often Petr Yan units the tempo in these kinds of fights, tonight Merab set the tempo and placed on a terrific efficiency, particularly his first time going into championship rounds like that.”
White isn’t going to push Dvalishvili right into a title shot towards Sterling if he doesn’t need it — a moot level in the meanwhile anyway with Sterling set to battle the returning Henry Cejudo at UFC 288 on Could 6 — however his emotions on Dvalishvili prioritizing friendship over the championship are clear.
“Does Merab desire a shot on the title, or would Merab quite have individuals beneath him bounce over him and him must tackle all these completely different high guys when he’s not even getting the title shot when he’s subsequent in line for it?” White requested. “That’s a private determination that he must make. If that’s what he desires to do, I can inform you how that story ends. It’s not an excellent ending to that story. However he’s an enormous boy, he can determine that out on his personal.”
Watch Dana White’s media scrum beneath, courtesy of MMA Mania.
