Issue 228
April 2026
Fighters Only’s social media editor, Paul Browne, picks out his highlights from the past month on MMA social media.
BROKEN NOSE STILL CLOCKED IN FOR WORK
Merab Dvalishvili breaking his nose mid-session and casually updating everyone as he drives home is peak Merab. Most fighters would disappear behind ice packs and vague updates, but he treats damage like part of the daily checklist. The guy has a different baseline. When your normal looks like everyone else’s worst day, the pressure you bring into a fight starts long before the first exchange.
PRINCESS HOLDING UP THE SCHEDULE
Ian Garry’s gone from waiting his turn to publicly keeping score. Injury timelines. Dana’s version. His version. Now a nickname that lands somewhere between insult and marketing strategy. It’s not really about accuracy. It’s about framing the delay as someone else’s problem. With the Islam rumors floating around, this starts to look like a soft launch for something bigger. If the fight happens, he called it early. If it doesn’t, he’s already written the excuse for why.
Khamzat is offering $200k to any Olympic wrestler who can survive a session, turning training into something closer to a public challenge, and it lands because nobody really doubts the outcome. It’s half recruitment drive, half intimidation tactic, and all of it feeds the same idea that he’s operating at a level where even elite wrestlers are just warm bodies.
BARBER FIRST SUBMISSION SECOND
Mateusz Gamrot is trying to line up Paddy Pimblett for a trim and a tap in the same breath feels less like trash talk and more like a stylist booking he’s already confirmed. The clown emoji softens it just enough, but the message is clear. He sees a gap between hype and level, and he’s planning to expose it quickly.
Sean Strickland doesn’t do respectful build-ups, and this one’s gone straight past rivalry into something that sounds permanent. Talking about how he and Khamzat will die, enemies turn it from a fight into a grudge you don’t shake off with a handshake or a paycheck. It also raises the stakes in a different way, because now it’s not just about winning, it’s about who has to live with it afterwards.
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