Henry Cejudo has held titles at flyweight and bantamweight in the UFC, and he knows who his choice is as the best of all-time in the latter: Merab Dvalishvili.
“The Machine” outclassed Umar Nurmagomedov in this past Saturday’s UFC 311 co-main event, taking the best Nurmagomedov had to throw at him and emerging victorious via unanimous decision after a hard-fought five rounds. It was the first loss for Nurmagomedov, and the 12th straight victory for Dvalishvili, who hasn’t lost a fight since 2018.
Add that all up, and Cejudo sees no reason why Dvalishvili can’t be considered the best to compete at 135 pounds.
“You have to,” Cejudo said when asked by Pound-for-Pound podcast host if Dvalishvili can be considered the greatest in his division. “[Petr] Yan, [Sean] O’Malley, Cejudo, Umar, [Marlon] Moraes, [Jose] Aldo, I mean, he’s fought everybody. He’s fought everybody. He’s beat everybody in this division you can say in their prime.
“Merab is the bantamweight GOAT, at least in my eyes. He only has one title defense, but the people who he has beaten is great. Great top-5 résumé, maybe in the UFC, period.
As Cejudo points out, even though Dvalishvili has logged only one successful title defense, his recent wins have come against the best of the best, including future Hall of Famers Cejudo and Jose Aldo. Were it not for his close friend Aljamain Sterling holding the title from 2021-2023, Dvalishvili might have a few more championship wins under his belt.
Cejudo believes Dvalishvili hasn’t just surpassed the likes of Dominick Cruz, T.J. Dillashaw, Sterling, and himself on the all-time list, he also thinks the Georgian standout might be one of the best in the world today regardless of division.
“I feel like at this point I think you’ve got to put slide him at least pound-for-pound top-3,” Cejudo said. “He should be ahead of [Alex] Pereira, you have to slide him in at No. 2. Look at the win streak that he’s on and who he’s beat. I eat my words, another level of respect for Merab for what he’s done, who he beat. I don’t feel so damn bad losing to him.”
Dvalishvili was a sizable underdog heading into UFC 311, with the oddsmakers and several prognosticators in the media picking Nurmagomedov to continue his unbeaten run and claim his spot at the top of the mountain. But Dvalishvili’s aggression, toughness, and endless gas tank overwhelmed the challenger, giving him a win on all three judges’ scorecards.
Cejudo points out that it’s not only Dvalishvili’s athleticism and skills that make him indomitable, it’s his ability to draw on the crowd.
“I ended up re-watching the fight this morning and yeah, Merab won,” Cejudo said. “Merab won three, four, and five. Umar, I felt like Umar was tired in the second round. I don’t know if he was over-trained or something, but he didn’t have that same bounce. You could tell his mouth was open a little bit.
“There’s one thing that Merab does do well, he likes to have fun. He gets the crowd involved. F*ck, he did it with me. I could hear the f*cking crowd cheering. He was doing the exact same thing to a guy like Umar Nurmagomedov. ... You’re talking about a guy that has a good fighting spirit, but also understands the tactical sense and how it is that he’s able to really win the crowd. If you win the crowd, you typically tend to win the judges. I think that’s exactly what he did.”
