“Everybody knows how I feel about this de***ing thing – I hate it,” the organization’s leader said at a press conference in Las Vegas. “Why did you even come into this sport if you have that kind of psychological mindset – I don’t want the title, I don’t want to fight for the championship belt, we’re friends…”
“You can be friends with literally anyone in this business – there are a lot of nice people here. But it’s not all about friendship – it’s about who’s the best in the world. And if you don’t want to find out who’s the best in the world, you don’t belong here. You should be somewhere else. Plenty of places where you can fight and nobody cares what you do.”
On August 19 at UFC 292 in Boston, Aljamain Sterling lost his flyweight championship belt by second-round technical knockout to Sean O’Malley, after which the division’s new champion announced that he planned to make his first title defense as early as December against Maron Vera, who had handed him the only defeat of his career three years earlier.
The Georgian fighter made a number of contradictory statements after the title fight, first saying he was ready to fight Sean O’Malley, and then clarifying that he would only do so if Sterling did not get a rematch. Dvalishvili also called his friend’s defeat a fluke, expressing confidence that Sterling would easily regain his title and beat O’Malley ten times out of ten.