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Merab Dvalishvili won the UFC bantamweight title by beating Sean O’Malley via unanimous decision in Las Vegas on Saturday night, with the Georgian’s victory marked by some unusual incidents.
Dvalishvili dominated a fight in which he grappled well to limit O’Malley’s striking, eventually winning 49–46, 48–47, and 48–47 according to the judges’ scorecards.
But the fight was marked by a couple of strange incidents, with the Georgian making headlines after receiving a warning from veteran referee Herb Dean for kissing O’Malley’s head during the second round.
Dvalishvili was seen repeatedly kissing the American’s head in the last seconds of the round, and he received a talking to from Dean. Earlier on, the 33-year-old had entered a heated verbal exchange with O’Malley’s head coach, Tim Welch, while Welch had also received a warning from Dean over ‘excessive coaching’ and comments made to Dvalishvili.
None of this seemed to affect the Georgian though, as he recovered from some early strikes from O’Malley to shut down the reigning champion’s hits. The American performed better in round three, countering the Geeogian’s wrestling well, before opening a cut over his eye in the fourth round.
However, Dvalishvili recovered once more to score a takedown and dominate the rest of the fourth frame, and he survived some kicks to the body from the defending champion before showcasing more impressive grappling as the fight went the distance.
After the fight, an excited Dvalishvili told Joe Rogan that he “wasn’t feeling any different than any other day”.
“I was actually curious why I wasn’t feeling that I was fighting for a UFC belt,” he said.
“Today was a normal day for me. As you see, I don’t spend my energy. Crazy. I feel I’m in a dream. Today, I’m the best fighter in the UFC. I proved [it]!
“I can go 15 more rounds like this. I have a belt, I win, everybody knows I dominated this guy,” he added.
Early reports suggest that Umar Nurmagomedov, cousin of UFC legend Khabib Nurmagomedov, could be Dvalishvili’s next opponent.
