In a sport defined by strategy and discipline, Merab Dvalishvili’s title reign is a masterclass in pure, unfiltered chaos. And it’s working. The Machine is set to run it back with Petr Yan on December 6 at UFC 323. A match that feels like another chapter in the reign of the pound-for-pound king of the bantamweights. As he prepares for his next challenge, his unique, relentless style has even his fellow fighters on the UFC 323 card trying to make sense of his dominance.

Payton Talbott, who will be fighting Henry Cejudo at the event, had heaps of praise for Merab Dvalishvili. Talbott recently appeared on Brian Campbell’s podcast, and the topic of conversation shifted to the chaos-driven dominance of Merab. He was very expressive in his description of the champ’s eccentricity.

“Merab is just a special case because he kind of just like breaks the rules and it works for him. So it’s like, you know, you can think, well, yeah, of course I would land this here in this exchange, but yeah, the guy just breaks rules, and he just fights goofy, and it works for him.”

Talbott added that judging Merab from a distance doesn’t make sense, saying, “It’s easy to be a critic when you’re watching, so I try not to take it too seriously.”

The only thing that can stop the 34-year-old is the clock, as no one has yet found an answer to his ceaseless style of wrestling. The Machine once attempted about 49 takedowns in one round against Talbott’s UFC 323 opponent, Cejudo, an Olympic wrestler.

Dvalishvili is not wasting any time in building up his legacy. He is already preparing for his fourth title defense of the year. The main event of UFC 323 will see him face Petr Yan again. The quick return is not a surprise because Merab left UFC 320 practically unhurt after he floored Cory Sandhagen and proved to everyone once more why the title has been stationary for weeks. Another win over ‘No Mercy’ would not only elevate Merab above the other contenders in his division, but it would also allow him to surpass Dominick Cruz in the all-time rankings of the bantamweights.

Merab’s year of dominance earns top honor

Merab Dvalishvili has been an impressive contender for the Fighter of the Year honors throughout the whole year leading to the upcoming UFC 323, and moreover, it is a very powerful 2025 performance that will be in favor of his being declared one of the greats in the sport.

The Georgian bantamweight king clinched the award during fight week, adding to the ESPY Award for Fighter of the Year that he won back in July. He then fights Petr Yan on December 6, possibly making history of being the first UFC champion to defend a title four times in one year. Just the figures tell an incredible story.

Dvalishvili would become a joint holder with Kamaru Usman of the second place on the list of all-time consecutive wins at UFC with 15 victories, and only Islam Makhachev and Anderson Silva would be ahead of him. He opened his 2025 campaign with a dominant decision against Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311 in January, followed it up with a submission of Sean O’Malley at UFC 316 in June, and a unanimous decision victory over Sandhagen at UFC 320 in October.

One thing that makes this situation even more incredible is that Dvalishvili has been competing with injuries that would put most athletes out of action. He fought with a broken toe against O’Malley and had to cope with a back injury and a staph infection while he was fighting Nurmagomedov. The man keeps going because he simply doesn’t know how to quit.

Dvalishvili was the lone ESPY nominee who notched up three title fight victories during the eligibility period, and by this, he took the honor from Islam Makhachev, Kayla Harrison, and Dricus Du Plessis. However, the Georgian is not very much interested in mid-year awards. He wants to end 2025 with a bang that will remove all doubts.

Even rival Umar Nurmagomedov has acknowledged this point, saying, “I think he deserves to be the fighter of the year because he is going to defend the title for the fourth time. Nobody is doing that. He’s very active. It’s amazing.” The statistical superiority is ridiculously high. Dvalishvili has the UFC record for the most career takedowns with 117, a number that keeps rising with every match.

His fighting style disregards all the rules of fight strategy; he goes for an average of 31.3 takedowns in a five-round fight, a rate that would exhaust ordinary humans before the end of the second round.

The main event at UFC 323 is not just a matter of defending a title. It is about establishing a legacy that appeared impossible.  Can the Machine repeat what happened back in 2023?