UFC president Dana White believes bantamweight contender Merab Dvalishvili has a critical determination to make about his profession.
After setting a report for takedown makes an attempt within the UFC Fight Night 221 most important occasion at The Theater at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas, Dvalishvili gained a dominant unanimous determination over former champion Petr Yan. Entering the combat at No. 2 within the USA TODAY SPORTS/MMA Junkie bantamweight rankings, Dvalishvili solely had one man forward of him, and that’s his finest good friend and most important coaching associate, the champ Aljamain Sterling.
Considering his dominant show and his rating within the division, the following cease for many fighters can be a shot on the title. But for Dvalishvili, there’s a little bit of a predicament, as a result of he and his good friend Sterling have an settlement to not combat one another.
White, who has seen this situation play out a couple of instances previously, says that Dvalishvili ought to rethink that association.
“I don’t remember who the hell I was talking to the other day about this, and I was like, ‘Yeah, we don’t have to deal with that bullsh*t anymore,’” White advised reporters throughout a information convention Saturday. “You know, again within the early days, the camps had been so small, you didn’t have lots of completely different choices. So, we had lots of these guys saying, ‘Oh, he’s my good friend, he’s my good friend.’
“You can still be friends and want what your friend has, you know what I mean? It would be a really bad idea for Merab to go down that path.”
As White touched on, there have been various cases previously when buddies are heading on a collision course, however refuse to combat one another for the promotion’s championship.
From Anderson Silva refusing to combat Lyoto Machida, Daniel Cormier saying he would change divisions somewhat than combat Cain Velasquez, or Kamaru Usman stating he would somewhat there be two African champions than one when requested if he would problem Israel Adesanya – buddies have created pacts regardless of how a lot the followers or the promotion desires to see them combat one another.
Sterling has repeatedly said he is not going to combat Dvalishvili in an effort to stop ruining their friendship. At UFC 288, Sterling will look to defend his title towards the returning former champ Henry Cejudo. A transfer to featherweight could possibly be on the horizon for Sterling afterward, though that’s not a call set in stone.
Dvalishvili mentioned he desires to remain lively and there are different fights he might take, however above all, combating Sterling is off the desk. Despite the state of affairs, the Georgian fighter sees two finest buddies on the prime of the division as “a good problem to have,” however White disagrees.
“Does Merab want a shot at the title or would Merab rather have people under him jump over him, and him have to take on all these different tough guys, when he’s not getting a title shot when he’s next in line for it?” White mentioned. “That’s a personal decision that he needs to make. If that’s what he wants to do, I can tell you how that story ends, and it’s not a good ending to that story. He’s a big boy, he can figure that out on his own.”
