“I will feel uncomfortable begging for a title chance before Merab – he is an absolute beast, I respect him very much, but I need first place in the rankings,” the American said in an interview after the fight. “Merab, are you hungry? I have prepared something for you, but you will not like it!”
The answer of the Georgian fighter, who was present in the hall, was not long in coming.
“Let’s go! Anytime, anywhere!” Dvalishvili wrote on the social network.
The bantamweight bout between Cory Sandhagen and Marlon Vera, headlined the event, ended in a split decision victory for the American, while Merab Dvalishvili won a dominant unanimous decision over former division champion Petr Yan two weeks earlier.