Revealing his desire to fight on the White House card, Merab Dvalishvili said, “I’m the only one champion who is American citizen right now. I’m not American, but at least I am American citizen.” However, Dvalishvili has had his fair share of troubles as a non-American on US soil. And the first incident that made him realize that he was a man in a foreign land was when he went in to train with his first American coach.
During a recent conversation with Matt Serra on Geeking Out With Matt Serra, the bantamweight champion recounted his first experience in an American gym. ‘The Machine’ was already jittery when he arrived in the USA back in 2012, with everyone claiming that it wouldn’t be an easy task to survive in America. And when he joined a gym, he almost had an altercation with his very first American coach, just because of the language barrier between the two of them.
Dvalishvili recollected, “I go to this gym, the boss, this Mike, he’s really crazy guy, man, you know. I see many people in my life, but this guy is worst coach… Worst coach. One time, he said, ‘Okay, I’m gonna hold the pets for you.’ And then he told me one-two. I punch one-two. He said, ‘Motherf—–!’ You know, for us, ‘motherf—–’, because I don’t speak English, I though he was talking s— about my mother. I go crazy…”
Serra pointed out that the coach was actually complementing Dvalishvili. Thankfully, one of Dvalishvili’s friends intervened and saved the bantamweight star from further embarrassment. He continued, “But thank God, my friend, Georgian, told me, ‘No, no, no. That’s not- He’s not talking s— for you.’”
Of course, surviving in America is no easy feat. Dvalishvili worked as a demolition man and a handyman at first. Later, he became a carpenter, and managed the concrete works. He did everything except electrical work and plumbing. It was barely enough for him to take care of his training.
Merab almost beat up his first American coach for calling him motherf*cker:
“Thanks God my Georgian friend told me that he’s not talking sh*t to me.”
YT/Matt Serra pic.twitter.com/oIiEcz7Kkq
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) July 24, 2025
Nevertheless, Dvalishvili showcased impressive fighting skills and won all three of his amateur bouts in a span of just two years. But after stepping into the MMA world as a professional athlete in 2014, the world gave him a reality check.
There was a time when Merab Dvalishvili decided to call it quits
Merab Dvalishvili began his professional MMA journey in 2014 with a defeat at Ring of Combat 47. He redeemed himself in his next bout by winning via a third-round KO. But his next fight at CFFC 43 ended up in another unanimous decision loss. The first two losses of his career absolutely shattered the Georgian fighter’s confidence. “That was the moment… I’m like I’m done,” Dvalishvili recalled, during a conversation with Eric Nicksick on the coach extraordinaire’s podcast. “At that time, I was thinking, ‘If I lost here, in Ring of Combat, I was 1-2… How am I gonna win in the UFC?’”
‘The Machine’ exiled himself from the world of mixed martial arts in 2015. However, it didn’t take him too long to realize how much he loved being in a fight. Dvalishvili continued, “But I said, ‘Win or lose, I’ll keep fighting.’ …Maybe, hopefully, I could pick up my immigration papers and then fight in China. As long as they covered my flight, I could fight in China or Russia. …I forgot about the UFC or Bellator.”
And that was the decision that led him to become a celebrated champion in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Even though he was previously disliked as a “boring” fighter who tends to beat his opponents via decisions, Dvalishvili continued to struggle in his journey to become a champion. Today, he’s on a 13-fight win streak, with two title defenses under his belt. He even defeated Sean O’Malley twice and outwrestled the Dagestani star, Umar Nurmagomedov. Needless to say, he has come a long way from being a so-called boring fighter.
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