Merab Dvalishvili had the entire world of mixed martial arts worried when he disclosed his toe injury. It had an uncanny similarity with Conor McGregor’s injury that pushed him out of UFC 303. And with ‘The Machine’ showing his swollen toe, the fighting community began to speculate trouble for UFC 316. Is the PPV headliner compromised? That’s what we’ll find out first in today’s episode of MMA News Roundup.
After that, we’ll take a look at the petition that demanded Dana White strip Jon Jones of his heavyweight belt. Finally, we’ll look at the verbal battle between Erin Blanchfield and Maycee Barber. So without any further ado, let’s dive right into it!
Merab Dvalishvili comes clean on his injury before UFC 316
Not too long ago, Merab Dvalishvili got his toe injured while sparring to prepare for his rematch against Sean O’Malley. According to the video that he shared, the injury was a result of a head kick during training that landed in a bad way. As concerning as the injury looked, the bantamweight champion didn’t want to back down. He claimed he would chop his toe off and fight if the need arose. With a bit over a week left for his fight, Dvalishvili just came clean about his injury.
First of all, he was pretty surprised at the kind of reaction that he received. And as far as his bout at UFC 316 was concerned, all was safe. Talking to Media Scrum at Syndicate MMA, ‘The Machine’ disclosed, “I was surprised at how much reaction there was from people reacting. Everybody was like [freaking out]. Guys, it’s nothing. Really, it’s nothing.”
Looks like its safe to say Dvalishvili is not short of toughness, and we have the fight going ahead as scheduled. This would be the Georgian’s second title defense after snapping Umar Nurmagomedov’s undefeated streak in his first at UFC 311 in January. And speaking of second title defenses, the fans are not happy with Jon Jones.
The heavyweight champion Jon Jones has been racking up allegations of putting a stop to the division. And to put an end to that, the netizens began a petition to remove him from the heavyweight throne. And the number of people standing against ‘Bones’ continues to rise.
Petition against Jon Jones crosses 150,000 signatures
It has been way too long since Tom Aspinall first called out ‘Bones’ for a fight to unite the heavyweight belts. In the meantime, Aspinall defended his interim heavyweight belt once and is rumored to defend it once again. With the inactivity rising in the heavyweight division, the frustration and unrest also rose. And in that frustration, the fight fans began asking Dana White to strip Jones of his title. So, how many people have already signed it? The number has gone beyond 150K signatures.
Verdict MMA recently shared the numbers on Instagram. The caption of the post read, “This is getting absolutely wild now. Someone needs to bring this up to Dana White at the next press conference. ” But we can only hope for the best. After all, the UFC head honcho has claimed that Aspinall vs. Jones was the fight to make. It will likely be the biggest event of the year for the MMA promotion if they can get it done in 2025. But there’s nothing but uncertainty looming around it right now.
Nevertheless, we can be certain about the war between Maycee Barber and Erin Blanchfield at UFC Vegas 107. Talking about the bout, ‘Cold Blooded’ recently expressed her worries about Barber pulling out of the bout. And in response to that, ‘The Future’ lashed back at the #4 flyweight contender. Now, Barber has further substantiated her take.
Maycee Barber continues the argument against Erin Blanchfield ahead of UFC Vegas 107
In a recent conversation with Mike Heck, Barber addressed Blanchfield’s concerns once again. She said, “I also said this earlier, I think that Erin said that because Erin has absolutely nothing else to say. I don’t think that Erin really has any kind of like, I don’t really know what she could say that’s like that bad. I’ve tried to rack my brain and think about, ‘Oh, she’s gonna say, like, what else could she say?’ Well, she can’t say anything.”
‘The Future’ claimed that she pulled out of a fight twice, and both times it was because of her poor health. But this time, she was perfectly healthy. She continued, “I mean, I guess that’s her only concern is that I might not make it to the fight, which doesn’t make a lot of sense other than me being sick. But that’s in the past. I took a fight and I’ve never pulled out of a fight for any reason other than health issues. So, I think it’s pretty ignorant. But that’s really about it.”
The picture that Dvalishvili showed was nothing but a purple pinky toe. There wasn’t much swelling, which completely ruled out the talk about the broken pinky toe. And with UFC 316 right around the corner, we can, in fact, expect him to show some incredible pace despite the injury. But things are definitely not looking up for the heavyweight champion, at least on the fan appeal front. How will Dana White solve this one? And as far as Barber vs. Blanchfield is concerned, we can rest assured we have a good one coming our way this weekend.
The post MMA News Roundup: Merab Dvalishvili Gives Injury Update, Petition to Strip Jon Jones’ UFC Title Crosses 150K, Maycee Barber’s Counterattack Continues appeared first on EssentiallySports.