After his title defense on UFC 316, Merab Dvalishvili returned to Georgia to celebrate with his fans.
Last Saturday at UFC 316 in Newark, New Jersey, Merab Dvalishvili defended his title for the second time when he again dominated Sean O'Malley on his way to a submission of the fourth round.
With his dominant victory, 'The Machine' caught both Jon Jones and Ilia Topuria in the Pound-for-Pond rankings, now at number two behind Islam Makhachev.
Immediately after his fight, UFC boss Dana White dropped a hint with regard to the next opponent of Merab and claimed that a rematch against Umar Nurmagomedov would be 'interesting'.
Photo by Ed Mulholland/Zuffa LLC
Dvalishvili swarm by fans in Georgia during open-top bus parade
After UFC 316, 'The Machine' claimed that he would like to fight at least twice this year, which would break the record for most of the title defenses in a calendar year.
Although the Georgian lives and trains from Vegas, he still represents his nation every time he enters the Octagon.
And in an attempt to return to his huge Georgian fan base, Dvalishvili returned to Georgia earlier this week for an open-top bus parade where he showed his UFC belt.
During the open parade of the Open Top, the bus was absolutely flooded with raw Georgian fans who tried to show their support for their UFC Bantamweight Champion.
“Don't worry guys, this is how we do it in Georgia, let's go!” Dvalishhvili said while motorcycles and cars followed the ruthless squeaking on their horns.
Fan wakes up from the operation to find out O'Malley lost to Dvalishvili
Despite the growing popularity of Merab in the sport, 'Suga' Sean still remains one of the biggest stars in promotion because of his eccentric personality and sensational striking.
A fan of O'Malley unfortunately underwent an operation during the fight and only woke up after the fight when he was told by his mother that O'Malley had suffered a loss.
“I hate Merab,” the fan said because he was clearly pain from the operation.