Merab Dvalishvili’s coach, John Wood, says his fighter is coming for a finish at UFC 320.
After delivering a dominant performance against Sean O’Malley in June, ‘The Machine’ will put his UFC bantamweight gold on the line against division staple Cory Sandhagen on October 4 in Las Vegas.
In the months leading up to their highly anticipated clash, Dvalishvili has made it abundantly clear that he’s looking to end things early against ‘The Sandman’ next month. Speaking with James Lynch in a MiddleEasy exclusive interview, Dvalishvili’s coach, John Wood, stopped short of predicting a finish, but suggested that if the Georgian titleholder wants it bad enough, so shall it be.
“I always take a lot of flak for saying that we’re now trying to become that finish,” Wood said. “We’re looking for the finish. MMA is hard. This sh*t is hard at that level when you’re fighting the best guys in the world. Cory is the next best guy in the world right now. He’s so well-rounded, comes so well-coached. He’s a guy who comes prepared for everything, so to go out there and say, ‘Hey, we’re gonna get finishes,’ that’d be stupid.
“I don’t know if that’s going to happen, but it’s not going to be for a lack of trying. Merab went out there the other day and said he’s going to knock him out, and there’s a very good chance he does. But if he doesn’t—fights at this level are very hard to finish, but I can tell you this right now: inside of the room, [Merab] has become a finisher. This man has become somebody who is not only looking, but is able to identify when that finish is able to happen.”
While Merab Dvalishvili vs. Cory Sandhagen steps into the co-main event spotlight, it’ll be Alex Pereira who closes the show as he looks to take back the light heavyweight title he surrendered to Magomed Ankalaev earlier this year.
Pereira offered a surprisingly lackluster showing against Ankalaev at UFC 313, suffering his second-ever defeat inside the Octagon. Following the loss, it was revealed that ‘Poatan’ had been dealing with an injured hand and a bad case of norovirus.
Asked about seeing a different version of Pereira in the rematch compared to the one who fought Ankalaev in March, Wood said:
“He didn’t look like the man who’d been on this tear the three or four fights before that. The guy was a straight killer. I think it’s way too early to say he’s different, he’s shot, or he’s not that guy anymore. We need to see a few more performances before that can happen, but what’s always there with a man like that is the death touch. He touches you, he can hurt you, put you out, kill you. It is ungodly the kind of power that man has.
“From what I saw in that last fight, he didn’t fight his fight. He fought a defensive fight and focused on maybe not getting taken down, and what he needed to do got lost in the shuffle somewhere. I think if you see Pereira go out there, throw caution to the wind, and fight like the madman he’s capable of being, it only takes one punch from that man to change the entire course of a fight.”
John Wood Doesn’t Think the World is Interested in Seeing UFC Champ Ilia Topuria vs. Boxing Star Terence Crawford
It may be Merab Dvalishvili and Alex Pereira co-headlining the UFC’s next pay-per-view offering, but combat sports headlines have largely been dominated by reigning lightweight king Ilia Topuria as of late. Much of that is due to Topuria’s targeting of newly crowned undisputed super middleweight boxing world champion Terence Crawford.
‘Bud’ put on a stellar performance against Canelo Alvarez on September 13, handing ‘Canelito’ his third career loss and stripping him of his gold.
Adding to the hype was Topuria, who has teased a potential clash with Crawford—a fight some have compared to the 2017 showdown between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather. However, Wood doesn’t see Topuria vs. Crawford coming together anytime soon, let alone matching the hype of McGregor vs. Mayweather.
“I don’t think there’s that kind of hype to see [Topuria vs. Crawford],” Wood said. “Conor was made the last guy who had that superstar aura around him. Not that Ilia’s not a superstar, but he’s a superstar in certain markets and certain things. Conor was a worldwide phenomenon. The things he was doing, and then Mayweather was the biggest boxer in the world.
“I don’t think Ilia and Crawford would be anywhere near that. Now, is it a fight we as fight fans would tune in to see? Absolutely. Anybody who knows fighting would [watch] it, but [McGregor vs. Mayweather] crossed all platforms. There was so much hype that everybody watched it, but I don’t think there’s that kind of clamoring right now for something like that.”
Check out the full exclusive interview below:
