Merab Dvalishvili is the UFC bantamweight champ, but he achieved this through many hurdles —aka several injuries. It seems like there is a curse on him with wounds before a fight. Remember UFC 306 and UFC 311? He hurt his shin and had a big wound before UFC 311, and despite that, Dvalishvili managed to win. As for UFC 306, he suffered a severe gash above his eye that needed several stitches. And now? Before the UFC 316 rematch against Sean O’Malley, he reportedly hurt his pinky toe. Déjà vu much? Remember what happened to Conor McGregor before UFC 303? Yes, the same thing that happened to the Georgian champ.

‘The Notorious’ withdrew from his fight against Michael Chandler, but Dvalishvili has no plans of doing the same, it seems. ‘The Machine’ has made it clear that his broken toe is not going to be a hindrance to his title defense at UFC 316. He spoke to Michael Bisping and Paul Felder, saying, “I don’t wanna comment about Conor McGregor‘s toe because I  don’t know the exact pain and the situation, but my toe, I still have 9 other toes.” To this, Bisping chimed in while laughing, “Perfect answer!”

For the unversed, ‘The Machine’ hurt his pinky toe while training with 26-year-old LFA star Cameron Sandoval. In a viral video uploaded on social media, Dvalishvili was saying, “Why did you break my toe, my friend?” But Sandoval opposed, “That was you. You kicked me in the head and broke my toe. That’s just wrong.” 

However, Dvalishvili later updated his fans about his recovery through another video. Running down an abrupt slope, Dvalishvili talked to his fans on social media and assured them that he was fine. He said, “Let’s go, New Jersey! I’m coming June 7th—and still! Suga, you better show up, and let’s show people a good fight. No excuse from you, no excuse from me. And people, I promise you, you’re gonna have a great time, a good fight. I’m coming—I’m healthy, I’m ready, I’m hungry. Life is good.” Meanwhile, he might not be able to trick the commission this time, but he did the same before UFC 311!

Merab Dvalishvili duped the commission into making him fight at UFC 311

While speaking to Submission Radio, Dvalishvili’s coach, John Wood, revealed that the champ had played a hilarious trick on the health commission before the fight. Heading into his UFC 311 clash, he had suffered a severe cut on his shin that was not healing. However, ‘The Machine’ was not ready to give up on his fight and used a sleight of hand to trick the medical staff.

Wood told the hilarious story of how he tricked the commission, saying, “Watching him in sparring and watching the way he is performing in the room gave me all the confidence to know that he could do it. It’s just a level of you know, there was a week he didn’t train because he had a rib out. There was a week he could not even put on shin pads because his leg was so jacked up, you know. It was the day before the fight, we didn’t know if the commission was gonna take a look at that leg and clear him. Luckily, he pulled the old pants trick. He showed the same leg twice, and they bought it .”

The doctor’s distraction was what saved his face, and he managed to not only fight against Umar Nurmagomedov but also win the fight with flying colors. But this time, will he be able to fight with an injured pinky toe? Tell us what you think in the comments below.