Merab Dvalishvili did not let the Islam Makhachev UFC 330 celebration slide quietly. After Makhachev beat Ian Machado Garry and ended the night with belts around him and a Russian flag behind him, Dvalishvili jumped on the thing that had him staring at the screen like the rules suddenly changed mid-fight.
The former UFC bantamweight champion was watching the post-fight scene with Nina-Marie Daniele when he questioned why Makhachev’s side could bring that flag into the Octagon. Dvalishvili has long made his Georgian identity part of his fight-night walk, and this came while he is already tied back into the title mix with Petr Yan and UFC 333 waiting down the road. So, yeah, the guy noticed.
Daniele posted the clip on X, and Dvalishvili’s frustration was pretty direct.
I thought they’re not allowed to have a flag there, bro. They don’t let me use the flag. Now they are, this flag is banned. This flag is banned everywhere in the world. And only, of course, they show it here in UFC.
Merab Dvalishvili gets upset the UFC allowed Islam Makhachev to bring the Russian flag to the octagon but doesn’t allow him to bring the Georgian flag @MerabDvalishvil pic.twitter.com/sUlXmmx3cb
— Nina-Marie Daniele (@Ninadrama) August 18, 2026
Dvalishvili Still Has Bigger Violence Waiting
The flag issue is awkward because the UFC has moved through different versions of its flag approach over the years, and fighters have not always experienced the same public optics. Dvalishvili was not making a diplomatic speech here. He was watching Makhachev’s team celebrate after a massive win and asking why his own flag situation has apparently been treated differently.
Makhachev’s UFC 330 win was already a monster headline on its own. He beat Garry by unanimous decision, pushed his winning streak to absurd territory, and walked out of Philadelphia with the kind of championship shine that keeps the Makhachev conversation rolling even after the scorecards are old news. The flag debate added a side quest nobody asked for, but this sport specializes in turning five seconds of post-fight video into a full-blown argument.
For Dvalishvili, the timing is not exactly boring either. The UFC announced during the UFC 330 broadcast that Dvalishvili and Yan are set for a trilogy fight in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 24. Their rivalry is split at one win each after Dvalishvili’s dominant 2023 win and Yan’s title-winning answer last December, which means the third meeting is not some cute nostalgia booking. It is a nasty little championship problem with history, bad blood, and a division full of contenders waiting to see who gets dragged into the next mess.
That is why this moment traveled so quickly. Dvalishvili is not just a random fighter complaining from the couch. He is one of the loudest personalities in the bantamweight title picture, he is tied to Georgia in a way fans recognize instantly, and he is heading toward another huge fight while the UFC’s biggest names keep stacking headlines around UFC 330.
The UFC has not publicly addressed Dvalishvili’s reaction as of Thursday morning, August 20, 2026. Makhachev, meanwhile, has enough going on after UFC 330 without picking up every argument orbiting his win. Dvalishvili has a trilogy to prepare for, and if the promotion wanted quiet between now and Yan-Merab 3 in Abu Dhabi, this was not exactly the chill start.
