Merab Dvalishvili has only been training MMA full time for 4 years

It’s been a long road for Merab Dvalishvili to become UFC bantamweight champion. The Georgian fighter has been toiling since 2014 as a pro in mixed martial arts, and even when he joined the UFC in 2017 he had to keep his job in construction to pay the bills.

In a new interview with Jake Shields, Dvalishvili revealed that it wasn’t until 2020 that he was able to focus on his UFC career full time, and that was only because the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down.

“So I lost my first fight in UFC, and we know how UFC pay It’s not well in the beginning,” Merab said. “$10,000 and you still have to pay your manager and some expenses. I buy car. I was driving very old car, and then no money. In my second fight, I got bonus, but I take off, I stop working. But when my next fight comes, I was broke again because I spent all this money. And I’m like like, now what?”

“When I win the next one, I keep this money and I stay working,” he said. “Because I don’t want [to be broke] again.”

Dvalishvili said there were a lot of expenses making sure his immigration papers kept moving, which kept him returning to work. Earlier this year he finally became a U.S. citizen and moved from New York to Las Vegas where he trains with John Wood at Syndicate MMA. He still has a lot of loyalty to his New York City coaches Ray Longo and Matt Serra … but he prefers the traffic situation in Vegas.

“Now that I have a good training in Vegas, I have so many training partners,” he said. “I can go jujitsu. I can sparring, the MMA practice. So I rather do that.”

Despite losing a largely one-sided contest to Dvalishvili at UC 306, Sean O’Malley is still making a lot of noise about beating Merab. None of that bothers “The Machine,” though.

“I’m not mad or something. I can have fun now. Make fun with him,” he said. “I would love to rematch with him. I think it’s gonna be so next time, I will finish him. But how I beat him, I don’t even think he will take a next challenge.”

For now he’s preparing for the next number one contender, which is looking like Umar Nurmagomedov.

“I think the the most deserving guy is Figueiredo,” he reiterated. “But I guess UFC wants to me fight Umar. All the people, I see their comments, everybody wants me to fight Omar. So I will fight Omar.”