- Cory Sandhagen made sure he would get a response from Merab Dvalishvili by coming up with an enticing callout after beating Marlon Vera
- “The Machine” has accepted “Sandman’s” challenge
Right after securing a split decision victory over Marlon Vera at UFC San Antonio, Cory Sandhagen called out No. 1 bantamweight contender Merab Dvalishvili in his Octagon interview. It was an epic callout and it didn’t take long before “The Machine” made his response.
No shortcut
Speaking at his UFC San Antonio post-fight press conference, Sandhagen shed more light on his decision to go after Dvalishvili.
According to “Sandman,” he is certain Dvalishvili is the best contender available at the moment and is the fighter who could bring the best out of him as he prepares for a title shot.
“I think Merab is the best guy in the division right now outside who’s fighting for the title. I don’t want to like shy away from challenges. I don’t want to be that guy. I want to inspire people, I don’t want to like cherry pick my fights all the way to the top. I want to fight the best guys so that when I do get the title I can defend it because I’m experienced and I think Merab is like a perfect challenge for my type of style, for my type of fighting, he’s going to make me train really hard because of how good he is and those are the types of guys that I want to fight and if I can get past him, then I 100% deserve a title shot,” Sandhagen explained.
Challenge accepted
Sandhagen also commented on his enticing callout on Dvalishvili which says:
“Merab, you’re hungry? Well, I got something for you to eat… And it don’t taste good!”
For Sandhagen, he thought coming up with the most “stupid” line possible in order to prompt Dvalishvili to respond.
“It was supposed to be as stupid as possible so I hope that I accomplished that,” Sandhagen said.
As expected, Dvalishvili answered and accepted Sandhagen’s challenge.
“Let’s go anytime anywhere,” Dvalishvili wrote in a tweet.
Let’s go anytime anywhere 🦾⚔️
მევიდეეეს!… https://t.co/eg7CADfDze
— Merab “The Machine” Dvalishvili (@MerabDvalishvil) March 26, 2023
The win over Vera saw Sandhagen pulling off back-to-back wins since his title fight loss to Petr Yan at UFC 267. On the other hand, Dvalishvili has been unbeaten since 2018, defeating all of his last nine opponents.
