Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker believes Merab Dvalishvili is ready to showcase new levels to his game at UFC 316 this weekend.
Dvalishvili (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) will face Sean O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) in the main event at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday. It’s a rematch of their bout at UFC 306 last September, where “The Machine” outpointed O’Malley over five rounds to capture the UFC bantamweight title.
Dvalishvili built a comfortable lead over “Suga” in the early rounds of their clash at the Sphere, which allowed him to ease off the gas slightly and engage with the crowd as the fight progressed. However, he appeared to lose focus late in one round and nearly paid the price after prematurely disengaging, mistakenly thinking the round had ended.
Robert Whittaker believes Dvalishvili has learned from that mistake and will enter UFC 316 as a better fighter because of it.
“I spoke to Merab today”, Whittaker said on his podcast MMA Arcade. “He seems locked in. He says he's going to be looking for a finish in this one. I did think in their first fight, he got a bit carried away with the showboating, a bit carried away with the taunting, a little bit. Especially when he popped up with his hands up and got hit in the back of the head.
“No, I didn't feel like it was necessary”, Whittaker responded when asked if he had shared that opinion with Dvalishvili, “because he seemed locked in when I was speaking to him. I didn't get that super high energy that we're used to seeing with Merab. He seemed like a real focused Merab. He understands the threat that Sean's going to bring to the table. And yeah, I'm looking forward to this weekend for that. Primarily for this fight.”
