Merab Dvalishvili has the largest battle of his profession when he headlines Noche UFC on the Sphere on September 14th in opposition to bantamweight champ Sean O’Malley.
Dvalishvili continues to be tight together with his longtime group at Serra-Longo in New York, however since shifting to Las Vegas he’s been coaching out of Syndicate MMA underneath head coach John Wooden. And whereas Wooden is undoubtedly working laborious on Merab’s means to hold with a striker of O’Malley’s pedigree, he’s not trying to re-invent the Georgian into one thing he’s not.
“I at all times, as a coach, have a look at the issues that make Sean Sean and what we have to do to get round it,” Wooden advised Purple Nook MMA. “And I by no means wanna overlook what received Merab to the dance, what introduced Merab into this battle.”
“We’ve got to attempt to maintain these issues in examine, and never lose ourselves,” he continued. ”’Oh, we’ve to go be taught conventional boxing. We’ve got to do these items to compete with O’Malley.’ As a result of that’s how we’re gonna get knocked out.”
So what’s Wooden’s aim when engaged on the evolution of Merab Dvalishvili?
“Merab is a loopy man, we’ve simply began to make him a technical loopy man,” Wooden mentioned. “Sean, there’s at all times holes in all people’s recreation. For those who’re actually good at this, it opens up this. For those who’re actually good at countering that, it opens up this. It’d take us just a few extra instances to get the place we have to get, however we’re gonna get there.”
“We’ve by no means seen Sean get pressured sufficient to the place he breaks. However while you begin to strain him, there’s a degree of he does get drained. He does begin to get slightly no matter, however he’s very composed. He’s a world champion for a purpose, so it’s not like you’ll be able to strain Sean and he simply goes to s—. But when Merab can do Merab?”
All Dvalishvili has to do is keep away from getting knocked out like his pal and coaching accomplice Aljamain Sterling.
“We’ve received a man in right here proper now that’s a world champion striker who’s a sniper identical to O’Malley,” Wooden mentioned. “He’s constructed like him, doing issues like him. There’s a number of actually good strikers [at Syndicate]. I’m not saying he’s O’Malley, however we’ve received a number of guys that may emulate that. I don’t assume anyone on the market can emulate what Merab does, the chaos that he brings.”
“Each battle since he’s been right here on the fitness center, he’s getting higher,” Wooden assessed. “And he’s studying methods to management and use his weapons correctly. So Sean’s superb. There’s only a few holes. However there’s undoubtedly issues we are able to capitalize on that we’ll capitalize on.”
