Courage takes many forms. It’s not just about throwing or taking punches while locked in a cage.
Long before he was a household name in MMA, Merab Dvalishvili’s journey was already a testament to incredible courage.
It began the day he left everything he knew behind in Georgia. The country, now independent, was part of the Soviet Union when Dvalishvili was born in 1991.
He boarded a plane to the U.S. with nothing but a suitcase and a dream, flying alone into the unknown. He came with no connections, no friends, no grasp of English and no guarantee that things would work out. All he brought was an insatiable work ethic and a belief that he could fight his way to the top of the world.
Now, just days away from defending the bantamweight title he took from Sean O’Malley at UFC 306, he faces the superstar again Saturday in the main event of UFC 316.
It all seems so easy now. It was anything but.
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Merab Dvalishvili (R) has won 12 in a row.
Even after making it to the UFC, the struggles continued. He dropped his first two fights and was staring down the barrel at being cut.
He enters the bout with O’Malley on a 12-fight winning streak and is defending the belt he took from O’Malley at UFC 306 for a second time.
“Actually, it was hard for me to even dream of being a UFC champion after I first came to the U.S.,” Dvalishvili said. “When I got here, I couldn’t find any MMA gyms. I couldn't find MMA training partners. Just to get fights, I didn’t know how to do it. Everything was so hard.”
He persevered and slowly, things began falling into place.
“A while later, I did find myself a good team,” he said. “A couple of months later, I did get some professional fights. And when I trained with [former UFC champion] Aljamain Sterling for the first time, he was so much better than me and it was hard to think that I could be UFC champion. But I never stopped working and I just kept trying my best.”
Back in Georgia, Dvalishvili was a judoka who was instantly hooked the moment he discovered MMA.
His judo background gave him a bit of a leg up and he knew that he had talent. After he served his mandatory year in the Georgian Army, he made the decision to try to take his game to the next level.
“I loved MMA so much and I knew it was what I wanted to do with my life,” he said.
As a result, he made the not-so-easy decision to leave home and pursue greatness.
“I didn’t speak the English language,” he said. “I didn’t have any friends. Everything was against me. I faced so many challenges, but I learned from them. The important thing was, I never gave up. I tried to learn from everything and you’re seeing the results now.”
The results are apparent both inside and outside the Octagon. Dvalishvili has a “joie de vivre,” that crosses language barriers. He’s got a zest for life and for the sport that has quickly made him one of the UFC’s more popular fighters.
He’s got a great sense of humor and his videos on social media are clever and hugely popular. On one video, he shows a horse moving is mouth across a wire fence, as if strumming a guitar.
Then, the scene switches to Dvalishvili and friends. Dvalishvili is wearing yellow shorts and a cowboy hat and boots, dancing around. The caption says, “Meet the newest member of our Mexican band.”
Meet the newest member of our Mexican band ... 🐴 🦾🇲🇽 pic.twitter.com/UZvJiKAZXk
— Merab “The Machine” Dvalishvili (@MerabDvalishvil) May 24, 2025
His bout against former champion Henry Cejudo perfectly encapsulated his unique personality and passion for the sport.
He picked up Cejudo — a 2008 Olympic gold medalist in wrestling and a two-division former UFC champion — and carried him across the cage, to where Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, were seated.
As he carried Cejudo across the cage, he smiled broadly and chatted with Zuckerberg.
Not long ago, O’Malley posted a video of Dvalishvili outside training in the rain. He’s now nicknamed “The Machine,” because no one in UFC history has been able to come close to matching his ability to push a brutally fast pace for 25 minutes.
Following Dvalishvili’s title-winning effort over O’Malley at UFC 306 in September, UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier went to Dvalishvili’s home a couple of days later for an interview.
When he arrived, he had to wait for the champion.
Why?
It wasn't arrogance. The champ was out running.
“I’m lucky,” Dvalishvili said. “I love what I do. Yes, I work hard, but I do it because I love it so much.”
The love for what he does is obvious, and that passion has earned him a legion of fans.
O’Malley has vowed to be better on Saturday than he was in September. He had scheduled hip surgery before he entered the cage with Dvalishvili at Sphere in Las Vegas.
He admits now he wasn’t physically able to slow a grinder like Dvalishvili in the condition he was in. He’s convinced he’s done enough in camp now to be able to take his title.
Dvalishvili isn’t bothered by O’Malley’s bold words, or by much of anything.
He came from the bottom, stepping off a plane with no allies, with little money and no clear plan for how to make it work.
He just believed in his talent and his ability to outwork everyone else.
More than a decade later, the fire still burns.
He’s overcome the odds and is rich and famous. He has a title belt around his waist and influential people like Zuckerberg begging for a bit of his time.
He’s no longer chasing the dream; he’s living it.
Dvalishvili, though, hasn’t forgotten where he came from or how he got here.
Only he could chat with a billionaire mid-fight while carrying a legend in his arm. Only he would be out running four days after winning the title.
And only Dvalishvili does it all with a smile on his face and a prankster’s spirit in his heart.