Relentless Dvalishvili pursuing historical past at UFC 323

Merab Dvalishvili’s struggle model is relentless. All fuel, no brakes. He fights in perpetual movement, consistently bouncing round at distance, transferring laterally to vary angles, dashing out and in of vary with feints and takedown makes an attempt, throwing offence at opponents from all instructions.

His quantity and cardio are unmatched. On common over his UFC profession, Dvalishvili’s landed greater than 20 important strikes and practically 2.5 takedowns each 5 minutes. For most UFC fighters, both of these tallies would produce one in all their higher rounds of a struggle and a possible 10-8 rating. For Dvalishvili, doing each is merely extraordinary.

What’s extraordinary is doing each over 5 rounds 4 occasions in 12 months on the sport’s highest stage, whereas managing the coaching calls for, bodily restoration, psychological stress, media necessities, weight administration, strategic preparation, and ancillary enterprise alternatives a UFC champion should deal with between bouts. That’s insane.

Yet it’s what Dvalishvili is positioned to try this Saturday when he rocks as much as UFC 323 for a bantamweight title struggle with Petr Yan, making an attempt to grow to be the primary UFC champion to defend their belt 4 occasions in a calendar yr.

That it’s Dvalishvili of all folks pursuing this unprecedented feat is one way or the other each becoming and unbelievable. It’s exhausting to think about some other athlete within the sport possessing the motor and sturdiness to resist such a demanding schedule. But it’s additionally exhausting to think about any athlete interval having the bodily and psychological bandwidth to take action whereas repeatedly incomes five-round determination victories on the again of such a gruelling struggle model.

Dvalishvili has the fifth-longest common struggle time amongst energetic fighters, and ninth longest in UFC historical past. He’s landed the seventh-most strikes of any UFC athlete ever and can doubtless transfer into the highest three if Saturday’s struggle goes a number of rounds. His 117 profession takedowns have smashed a Georges St-Pierre report (90) that stood for many years. At his present charge, he’ll be flirting with 150 someday late subsequent yr. 

And that’s simply what we see. We aren’t aware of the hours, days, and months spent sparring and grappling within the health club between bouts to construct the conditioning base that permits him to maintain such an absurd quantity of quantity. Yet right here he’s, already one in all solely eight fighters in UFC historical past to efficiently defend a title thrice inside a yr, trying to topple a fourth challenger earlier than the earth’s taken a full journey across the solar.

Of course, a byproduct of Dvalishvili’s relentless schedule is the UFC operating out of high-level opponents to throw at him. He’s already overwhelmed every of UFC’s Nos. 1-4 ranked bantamweights as soon as and is at present engaged on lapping them once more. He’s already overwhelmed Sean O’Malley twice and, ought to he safe a second victory over Yan on Saturday, will probably have one other crack at Umar Nurmagomedov, whom he unanimous-decisioned in January.

You can at the very least start to promote your self on the opportunity of a special story towards Yan, who first confronted Dvalishvili over two years in the past. The former champion’s unbeaten in three fights since, unanimously successful 9 of 11 rounds within the course of. It’s definitely doable Yan’s improved sufficient to discover a flaw in Dvalishvili’s sport that others haven’t. But what’s definitely not is that Yan’s skilled something near the strain and tempo Dvalishvili can placed on him from any of his opponents since.

When Dvalishvili fought Yan in March 2023, he set a UFC report for many takedowns tried in a struggle at 49. His final outing towards Cory Sandhagen, Dvalishvili merely tried 37. Only 5 fights in UFC historical past have seen a competitor try 30 or extra takedowns. Dvalishvili’s chargeable for three of them.

But what’s actually wild about Dvalishvili’s first struggle with Yan is that he additionally tried 401 strikes, the sixth-most ever in a UFC bantamweight struggle. That’s two-and-a-half occasions extra strikes than Yan — not precisely a low-output fighter — threw on the evening.

When Dvalishvili wasn’t taking Yan down, he was throwing strikes at him. And when he wasn’t throwing strikes at him, he was making an attempt to take him down. Dvalishvili merely spammed offence for 25 straight minutes, suffocating Yan’s potential to provoke any of his personal. 

Think about it this fashion. Dvalishvili tried 401 strikes and 49 takedowns over 5 rounds towards Yan once they first fought. Yan’s three opponents since mixed for 484 and 20 over 11. 

Of course, it was all the time believable {that a} champion might defend their belt 4 occasions in a yr if they’d a first-round knockout or two alongside the best way. Or a pair medium-length fights wherein they managed opponents on the bottom and didn’t take a lot injury in return. 

But for this fighter to do it? Literally the highest-output man within the sport who’s accomplished 64:42 of a doable 75 minutes over his first three fights this yr? That would have been exhausting to think about.

Now, technically talking, this wouldn’t be the shortest span wherein a champion’s defended their title 4 occasions. Tito Ortiz did it in 10 months on the flip of the century, starting at UFC 29 on Dec. 16, 2000 and ending at UFC 33 on Sept. 28, 2001.

But the low double-digit numerals titling these occasions inform you one factor about how uncommon something even near this feat is and one other concerning the distinction in diploma of problem. 

Twenty-five years in the past, UFC was an embryonic sport. A 22-year-old Ortiz’s first skilled struggle was in 1997 at UFC 13. A fighter that younger making their professional debut on a UFC card at this time is unprecedented. And for that man to be in a title struggle solely three years later with a 4-2 report? Impossible.

One of Ortiz’s wins on that run was over a title challenger with a 4-4-1 report. Another got here towards a fighter who weighed in 5 kilos beneath the middleweight restrict. A 3rd, Evan Tanner, wasn’t even affiliated with a health club, instructing himself grappling and submissions from Gracie household tutorial movies. He’d spent the earlier yr waging one-round, 20-minute shoot wrestling fights. And a yr earlier than that, he fought 10 occasions whole between American- and Japan-based regional promotions.

None of this cheapens what Ortiz completed. It was only a totally different time. The scale of MMA’s modernization since, not solely throughout the UFC however the wider feeder system that sustains it, is simply too profound to understand. Today’s most extraordinary UFC contender, one ok to hold across the prime 15 of their division however not fairly championship-level, may go undefeated if you happen to teleported them again to 1999.

And what if Dvalishvili went and broke Ortiz’s mark anyway? Saturday’s struggle shall be his third in six months. If he’s profitable, turns round to struggle once more in March, and is profitable once more, Dvalishvili can have defended 4 occasions in 9 months. It’s not out of the realm.

Already this yr, Dvalishvili’s defeated Nurmagovmedov, O’Malley, and Sandhagen, three contenders with a mixed 54-7 report on the time of these fights. Nurmagomedov was a betting favorite, undefeated, in his prime, and raised in Russia’s first household of freestyle wrestling. O’Malley was a former champion with knockouts in six of his 9 UFC wins. Sandhagen was one of many division’s most tactical strikers that includes glorious takedown defence. 

Dvalishvili’s power of schedule this yr has been by the roof and in Yan on Saturday, he’ll face an easy stance switcher with a various putting arsenal and 85-per-cent profession takedown defence. None of those guys realized to struggle off videotape.

If Dvalishvili defeats Yan, we will title him fighter of the yr proper there within the octagon. We can name him the most effective bantamweight ever — one of many sport’s most spectacular champions. But maybe most significantly, we must always give the person a break. Not that he’ll take it.