The coach of Merab Dvalishvili has insisted that the Bantam weight champion would never withdraw from rematching Sean O'Malley – even with a broken toe.
Dvalishvili just showed last week that he had broken his little finger toe on his right foot during a training session with just over fourteen days of his UFC 316 Rematch with O'Malley. He joked that he would rather “cut” it than pull it out, although the same injury has cost other hunters in the past.
Around this time last year, Conor McGregor was forced from his fight with Michael Chandler at UFC 303 due to exactly the same injury. The Irishman never returned, although Dvalishvili seems to have a history in fighting due to similar pain.
The coach of Merab Dvalishvili plays the impact of broken toe for UFC 316
Fortunately for fans who are enthusiastic to see Bantamweight Champion Merab Dvalishvili returning next week, he flows well through his broken toe. Coach John Wood even thinks it will play little part, with the Georgian known for suffering during fighting camps.
“I can't win with that guy,” Wood told Submission Radio. “I literally leave a day and something goes wrong. He likes to cheer everyone up and the thing is, so much as people think that is stupid or this or that, he would never post anything that will get him out of a fight.
“Boys, if he posts something, it's really not that bad and he won't be hindered that badly. I am sure he broke his toe, but every camp every hunter, even Sean O'Malley says it, has been beaten and there is a level of only injuries you go into fighting.
“That is the way it is, it will be and it is always that way. It is just one of those things that Merab clearly likes to post about something more than everyone else. It is good, he is all good.”
The coach of Merab Dvalishvili insists that toe injury will not harm the footwork of his hunter
Although McGregor's will have previously canceled entire fighting for the same injury, it seems that Dvalishvili is another animal. And when the host asked if it would be his ability to move and away from a striker like O'Malley, Wood did not seem surprised.
“Not at all,” he maintained. “It is one of those things that every injury clearly goes into the camp and is free, but that just doesn't happen. Especially the way these guys train with the intensity and frequency that Merab does.
Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC
“That is nothing compared to some things we have had in other fights. We clearly talked about how he went to the Umar [Nurmagomedov] But there are many things he doesn't talk about.
“He is a man who has had some enormous injuries who have previously come into a number of huge battles, broken ribs and backs and things that are simply out of worn. That is just the way it goes and he will show up, whatever happens.”