UFC champions Merab Dvalishvili and Ilia Topuria are good friends.
Both athletes, two of the most dominant in the field right now, have roots in Georgia. Dvalishvili was born in Tbilisi, Georgia prior to immigrating to the United States, whereas Topuria was born in Germany to Georgian refugee parents and did spent much of his childhood wrestling in Georgia. As two of just five Georgian fighters to compete in the UFC, it’s unsurprising they developed a relationship inside and outside of the gym
Unfortunately, that training relationship can only go so far. Dvalishvili recently revealed that he doesn’t spar with Topuria anymore, because the newly crowned Lightweight champion simply hits way too hard. He also confessed to getting dropped by “El Matador,” which is seemingly a common story in fight camps around the globe.
“I spar with him, he has great wrestling, great jiu-jitsu, we all know that,” Merab Dvalishvili told Ariel Helwani. “No [we didn’t spar] last week. I can’t spar with him anymore, he hits hard. He dropped me two times from the body shot. Thank God my head is fine! Every time I finish sparring with him, I was happy, like thank God.”
The silver lining here is that there are many ways to train together that do not involve taking full power Topuria punches. In addition, only hurting Dvalishvili with body shots is actually a sign of control and mastery from Topuria, a much better option than getting laid out by a head shot.
Either way, both men are at the absolute top of their game right now. Dvalishvili recently submitted Sean O’Malley in the ultra dominant second defense of his Bantamweight run, whereas the world is still reacting to Topuria’s latest display of greatness, a one-sided shellacking of Charles Oliveira that secured him his second title at UFC 317.
