Ahead of his UFC 320 title defense against Cory Sandhagen, Merab Dvalishvili has already picked his next opponent.
On October 4, the premier promotion returns to the T-Mobile Arena for UFC 320 with a championship double header, as Magomed Ankalaev defends his light heavyweight title in a rematch against Alex Pereira within the major event.
And within the co-main event, Merab Dvalishvili looks to defend his bantamweight title for a 3rd time when he takes on Cory Sandhagen.
Over a month out from the spectacular event, ‘The Machine’ has already apologized to Sandhagen, claiming his fate is already drawn.
Dvalishvili has already named his next opponent ahead of UFC 320
For some time, a big a part of the fanbase has claimed that ‘Sandman’ is the deserved contender, having not fought for UFC gold during his impressive tenure.
Nevertheless, ahead of his clash against the sensational striker, Dvalishvili has already picked out his next opponent for after UFC 320, and appears to proceed being some of the energetic champions within the promotion.
“If I win, I need to turnaround quick and fight in December. I’ll ask the UFC for a favour to offer me one other fight in December and even November,” Merab told the Full Send Podcast.
“Petr Yan is the clear contender without delay. He deserves it. I don’t intend to make him wait too long,” Dvalishvili continued.
Since ‘The Machine’ dominated Petr Yan in 2023, the previous champion has rebounded with three wins in a row, along with his most up-to-date having come against Marcus McGhee.
Dvalishvili reveals ‘unimaginable’ goal for his UFC profession
Most of the time nowadays, champions within the UFC try and go for double champion status as a substitute of accumulating several title defenses of their weight divisions.
Despite that, Dvalishvili wants to interrupt the mould and desires to go one step further by fighting on until he’s 50-years-old.
“My goal is to fight until I’m 50 years old. I hope I can (still) be champion at the moment, but it surely’s unimaginable. I’m 34 (years old) now. 16 more years staying champion, it’s unimaginable,” the champion claimed.
And with the Georgian having already picked his next opponent, he has also openly talked a couple of potential rematch with Umar Nurmagomedov down the road.