Merab Dvalishvili, UFC's ironman, isn't human, he's a 'Machine' as he attempts to make history

Known for his never-ending cardio inside the Octagon and his delightfully daredevil persona outside of it, there has long been a feeling that Merab Dvalishvili, the reigning UFC bantamweight champion known as "The Machine," is anything but human. 

If, in fact, the durable Dvalishvili is merely just a man, let's at least refer to him by the moniker he has earned of UFC's new ironman -- a fighter who simply can't be slowed or even affected by the normal fighting pitfalls of injuries, fatigue or accumulated damage. 

Dvalishvili (21-4), who turns 35 in January, will put that reputation to the test on Saturday when he completes a two-month turnaround to defend his 135-pound title against former champion Petr Yan (19-5) in a rematch that headlines the UFC 323 pay-per-view card from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. With a win, the native of Georgia can become the first UFC champion to defend a title four times in a single calendar year but the accolades don't stop there. 

Not only can Dvalishvilli wrap up MMA fighter of the year honors for 2025, a victory would extend his consecutive win streak to 15 fights, moving him into a second-place tie with Kamaru Usman and just one behind the record shared by Anderson Silva and Islam Makhachev. Not bad for a fighter who lost the first two UFC fights upon his 2017 debut and has subsequently never lost again. 

So, when the narrative surrounding Saturday's rematch of a 2023 non-title fight that Dvalishvili won by decision seems to center around the fact that Yan had a broken hand in their first meeting and claims he was only operating at 50% of his capabilities, all Dvalishvili can do is laugh. Dvalishvili, who seeks his fourth title defense and has already achieved the status of bantamweight G.O.A.T. in the eyes of most pundits, has done nothing but endure physical hardships throughout his incredible run yet often refuses to even mention their existence. 

UFC 323 fight card: Henry Cejudo vs. Payton Talbott, plus multiple former champions in Las Vegas

Shakiel Mahjouri

Dvalishvili, who recently passed Georges St-Pierre for the most takedowns completed in UFC history, has more energy than appears should be physically possible. In fact, his coaches have recently gone the route of sharing what sound like mythical stories of his relentlessness, including Dvalishvili sparring as many as five rounds on the same day as his title fights to warm up. 

And while it's true that Yan may have been compromised due to an injury in their first fight, so was Dvalishvili. Coach John Wood recently countered Yan's reveal by saying Dvalishvili had a hand that was so swollen due to injury heading into the same fight that they could barely fit it into a standard-sized UFC glove. 

Still, Dvalishvili maintains he's just like any of us. 

"I'm just a regular guy, I get injuries, too. But I work through [them]," Dvalishvili told CBS Sports on Monday. "I don't just deal with injuries, I'm a fighter. Once I step into the cage, that's my world. [It's] no problem."

It was equally no problem in January at UFC 311 when Dvalishvili welcomed one of his most skilled and difficult opponents to date in the form of Umar Nurmagomedov, the betting favorite who won the first two rounds against him on two of the three judges' scorecards before Dvalishvili rallied over the championship rounds to outwork his unbeaten opponent and secure a unanimous decision. 

Nurmagomedov, like Yan, would later reveal that he had broken his left hand in the first round against Dvalishvili and that the injury had prevented him from winning the fight. All that story did, however, was lead Dvalishvili's team to reveal that their fighter had a back injury so severe heading into the same fight that he could not get out of bed during training camp and was advised to pull out. 

If that wasn't enough, Dvalishvili was also battling a staph infection caused by incredibly deep cuts on his shin during training camp that limited his preparation and eventually needed 27 stitches to close. Dvalishvili also had to hide the cut, which finally closed just as fight week kicked off, from the traditionally strict California Athletic Commission during pre-fight medical exams. 

"That is correct," Dvalishvili said. "I was most injured in [the] Umar fight. I was most hurt in that fight but I don't complain about those things and I don't want to cry about it. This is what it is."

Things were reportedly so dire for Dvalishvili from a physical standpoint entering UFC 311 that MMA journalist Ariel Helwani of Uncrowned revealed that a member of Dvalishvili's team told him that "regular people would have probably had their leg amputated if they had to deal with the staph infection that he had on his leg." 

Dvalishvili downplayed the idea that he has a different pain tolerance as other fighters and simply chalked up his almost barbaric way of enduring and dismissing injuries as a choice that he, or any other fighter, has the option to make. 

"I guess [it's] everything else, like mindset," Dvalishvili said. "We are fighters. When you need to fight, you are going to get hurt before the fight or in the fight and you have to work through it. If it's not a really legit reason, I'm not going to pull out and I'm still going to keep fighting."

Dvalishvili's 14-fight win streak has been incredible not just for the pre-fight injuries he has overcome but for the near impossibility of being able to sustain that type of success at the elite level for so long in a sport so unforgiving where a one-second mistake at any time can cost you the fight. 

The perfect example to illustrate this point was Dvalishvili's second-round submission win over former title challenger Marlon Moraes in 2021. Dvalishvili endured an almost unconscionable level of damage in the first round after Moraes repeatedly blitzed him with flush, fight-ending shots that the iron-chinned Dvalishvili somehow survived despite multiple knockdowns as he was battered from one end of the Octagon to the other. 

Still, despite the UFC announcers beside themselves at watching Dvalishvili retain his consciousness, "The Machine" somehow ended the round by battering Moraes in top position on the ground before finishing him in the next round. 

"I guess [Moraes] was close to finishing me because I remember, when I exchanged punches with him, he got me with a blind punch," Dvalishvili said. "Oh God, he got me. I tried to fight back but it was gone. I didn' have any more power. I couldn't throw punches, I was not sane. He followed me and he dropped me. I lost [my] memory for a few seconds and didn't remember. 

"Of course, I was fighting back and once I started getting up, my memory came back and I knew there was no way I was losing this fight. I had to survive. But I was trying to fight back and I wasn't able to. That's why I tried to wrestle him and take him down."

The biggest challenge seemingly facing Dvalishvili entering the Yan rematch is whether the grind of four training camps in 12 months can leave him just as fresh as normal come fight night. And then, there is also the weight. 

Although Dvalishvili refers to himself as a "small bantamweight," and said he never needs to cut more than "20 to 22 pounds during fight week" ahead of any given bout, he made three separate references to the anticipated difficulty of this week's cut during a 15-minute interview. 

"I still worry about it all the time. This is my hardest time," Dvalishvili said. "I have to be disciplined to control my weight and eat what I eat. Even [if] sometimes you work out lighter, it doesn't matter. On Friday morning, you have to make 135 and then the fight is locked in after that."

While a victory would push the pound-for-pound ranked Dvalishvili even closer to consideration as one of the best and most accomplished fighters in UFC history, it's something he rarely thinks about. Instead, the fighter who emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 21 to work construction and is already talking about a March return to the Octagon whether he wins or loses, prefers to focus on further evolving his skill set.

"I would be very surprised if you had told me in 2015 that I would win 14 straight and be UFC champion [after losing his first two UFC fights]," Dvalishvili said. "I'm getting better and I'm a real deal but I am very humble and I know it takes one second to lose the fight. I don't want to be cocky or think about [whether] I'm the best. I'm just a hard worker and willing to get better every year.The only hard part in fighting is weight cutting but everything else I love."