Aljamain Sterling thinks Merab Dvalishvili’s cardio is not of this world.
‘The Machine’ has put together an impressive 12-fight win streak inside the Octagon, including his dominant unanimous decision victory over Sean O’Malley at UFC 306 to capture the undisputed bantamweight world title.
Since then, Dvalishvili notched his first successful defense, defeating Umar Nurmagomedov in January. Now, he’ll look to go two-up on ‘Sugar’ when he runs it back with O’Malley this Saturday night at UFC 316 in Newark, New Jersey.
With only one finish inside the Octagon, Dvalishvili isn’t exactly known for his ability to finish opponents, but that’s never been much of a problem for the Georgian, who utilizes his world-class grappling and never-ending gas tank to outlast every man who steps inside the cage with him.
The ‘Funk Master’ was blown away by Merab’s cardio
After spending time with Dvalishvili and even showing the reigning bantamweight titleholder a thing or two on the mat, former 135-pound king Aljamain Sterling came to one conclusion: Merab Dvalishvili can’t be human.
“In person, like, he’s not even gasping, you know, like how a regular human would—maybe he’s just extraterrestrial, he’s just different,” Sterling said during a recent episode of UFC 316 Embedded. “To see that kind of dominance in front of you was cool, it’s really cool. You look at the row of guys he’s beaten—former title challengers, former champions—the run he’s been on, how dominant he’s been.”
“He’s pushing, working on new stuff, and even some of the stuff I showed him to keep guys down, he did it to me today. I just started laughing. I was like, ‘Damn, this guy is getting freaking good!’”
Considering he hasn’t lost a fight in more than seven years and handily defeated O’Malley in their inaugural meeting, it should come as no surprise that ‘The Machine’ is heavily favored to come out on top in the sequel.
