https://t.co/GDGgUYMbtO
— Merab “The Machine” Dvalishvili (@MerabDvalishvil) August 28, 2024
Merab Dvalishvili thinks posting a picture of a cut on his eyelid ahead of a title fight wasn’t that big of a deal.
Dvalishvili is set to challenge Sean O’Malley for the bantamweight title in the main event at UFC 306 on Sept. 14 at The Sphere in Las Vegas. “The Machine” recently posted a picture of a cut he suffered in sparring on his right eyelid, much to the ire of Dana White. White went off on Dvalishvili during a press conference, deeming it extremely “dumb” of the Georgian contender to reveal a cut ahead of a title fight. However, Dvalishvili doesn’t regret any of it, which he claims was just routine for him. With over three weeks left before the fight when he suffered the cut, Dvalishvili knew he would be healed up in no time.
“I never regret what I did,” Dvalishvili told MMAjunkie.com. “I post this because I post everything on my social media. And it wasn’t big deal because I have more than three weeks when I got cut, and I know that my cut will take five days to heal up. And this cut no affect my training, my sparring, nothing. And as you see, I heal up and everything is good. When I see Dana was upset, of course I don’t wanna upset Dana White, UFC or do something like that. But I was very calm and relaxed because it wasn’t big deal. I don’t regret nothing. This is who I am, this is what I do and this my life.”
If anything, Dvalishvili believes all the panic he created could help draw more eyes on his clash against “Sugar.” Dvalishvili further went on to open the stitches on his cut by himself with a pair of kitchen scissors at which point White thought “The Machine” was just “f—ing with” him. Dvalishvili claims opening his own stitches is also routine for him.
“That’s how I always do,” he said. “I get cut all the time and I take [out] stitches myself. It was normal for me to just take stitches out by myself. I realized later it was big scissors. First when I tried to take stitches out I was trying to take out with a knife. But then knife wasn’t cutting and it was a little painful. Then I go inside and I grab the scissors. I’m sorry I don’t have a small [pair of] scissors. I grab kitchen scissors.”
