Merab Dvalishvili’s next move in the UFC is up in the air, after he took to social media to show off his newly-broken nose after a “stupid accident”.
Dvalishvili last fought in December, losing his bantamweight belt in a decision defeat by old rival Petr Yan. Since then, the Georgian has been intent on securing a trilogy bout with the new champion.
However, Dvalishvili has suffered an injury setback in the form of a broken nose, not for the first time in his career.
Sporting a black eye as well, the 35-year-old addressed his fans in an Instagram video, saying on Thursday: “What a good day and what a stupid accident. Again, 12 years after, my nose is f***ed up even worse.
“As you see, it’s even more cracked in the same direction, and when I touch, my bones are broken inside. And on one side I can’t even breathe.
“I’m gonna do an X-ray now; I’m sure the UFC will help me with that, even [though] I don’t have a fight coming up.”
Dvalishvili, who resides in Las Vegas where the UFC’s headquarters are located, later filmed another video. However, he posted it at the same time as his initial clip.
“I did my X-ray, and [the] X-ray shows that my nose [is] broken at two places,” he said. “I just saw [the] doctor, nose surgeon, and he said: if he will fix my nose and then make [it] straight, he has to re-break other bones, too, and it will take one more year to heal up.
“Of course I don’t want to do that. Otherwise, he said, ‘Keep it that way and you can do surgery after you retire,’ but I said: ‘I’m not gonna retire in the next 20 years.’
“So, I guess I’m keep my nose even more crooked than it used to be before and I’m gonna deal with that. I’m still gonna compete at [the] wrestling tournament against Henry Cejudo, RAF [Real American Freestyle]. Let’s see.”
Dvalishvili is scheduled to wrestle former UFC opponent Cejudo on 18 April, while awaiting news on his next UFC outing.
Yan, 33, has also been linked to a rematch with Sean O’Malley, to whom he lost a split decision in 2022. However, Dvalishvili seems a likelier challenger to Yan next time out, given O’Malley is booked on the UFC’s White House card on 14 June. The American will face Aiemann Zahabi at that event.
After outpointing Yan, O’Malley went on to claim the bantamweight title in 2023 but was dethroned by Dvalishvili in 2024, and the latter followed up that points win with a submission of “Suga’ Sean” last June.
Dvalishvili then dropped the title to Yan in December, almost three years after his own points win over the now two-time champ, who first held the belt from 2020 to 2021. Yan also held the interim bantamweight title from 2021 until 2022.
