Aljamain Sterling is beyond happy for his teammate Merab Dvalishvili.
In his latest performance, ‘The Machine’ dominated former UFC Champion Petr Yan at UFC Las Vegas. Dvalishvili’s monstrous pace, countless takedown attempts and strikes would overwhelm Yan, ultimately landing him a unanimous decision win.
Dvalishvili’s name is definitely in the title conversation now, but him and teammate Sterling have both made it clear they won’t fight each other for the title as they are best friends.
Sterling On Dvalishvili’s Performance
Sterling would have nothing but good things to say about Dvalishvili’s showing against his former rival.
“Merab Dvalishvili really goes out there and not only wins, he dominates,” Sterling said on his podcast. “Absolutely dominates Petr Yan pretty much from the first second of the fight to the last second of the fight. Talk about pressure, talk about pace. We couldn’t be happier for the guy. For me, it’s not really a surprise. Like yeah, I still get nervous on fight day for other people, the same way I get nervous for myself.
“But for him, I told him, I was like, ‘dude, if you do what you do in the room, I’m guaranteeing you there is nobody stopping what you do. It’s just an insane pace, man. Like no one fights like that.”
‘Funkmaster’ continued in his praise of Dvalishvili.
So Petr Yan had to fight on the terms of ‘The Machine’. There was no other way that he was having it. And I told him, I was like, dude, you keep that pace, which we all know you can cause you’ve done it, you’ve done it to me, you’ve done it in the room, it’s gonna be good at success. And that’s exactly what happened.”
Dvalishvili’s masterclass performance against Yan also caught the eye of Henry Cejudo, who is scheduled to fight Sterling at UFC 288. Right after the fight, Cejudo said he wanted Dvalishvili as the back-up fighter, should Sterling withdraw.
Sterling Fires Back At Cejudo
Sterling went off on Cejudo for these ‘mouth breather’ comments.
“We might as well parlay this into Henry’s stupid mouth breather comment, talking about he wants Marab as a backup for UFC Newark, and he’ll fight us both in the same night. This dude, he just constantly talks,” Sterling said of Cejudo. “Like I literally had Mexicans coming up to me telling me they hope I smash ’em.
“Trust me, there is nothing more than I would love to do than smash this triple turd. I know it’s a fist fight, anything can happen, but I am 100% believing once again that I’m gonna get it done, I’m gonna get my hand raised. You guys are gonna see another Merab-like performance outta me, against Henry.”
