Kamaru Usman made a lighthearted joke about Merab Dvalishvili slamming Henry Cejudo on the canvas in their UFC 298 fight. Dvalishvili and Cejudo are two of the most dominant wrestlers in the UFC's lower weight classes. While their fight was a competitive affair early, it steadily leaned in Dvalishvili's favor as the rounds progressed and he earned a unanimous decision victory.
In the third round, Dvalishvili picked Cejudo off a double-leg takedown attempt and slammed him to the canvas in front of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It became an iconic visual and a major talking point about the fight. During Dvalishvili's recent appearance on the Pound 4 Pound with Kamaru & Henry podcast, Usman jokingly compared the sequence to someone carrying a person to rescue them from fire. He said:
"I love the fact that you guys [Dvalishvili and Cejudo] are still respectful after you saved Henry... He was in a fire and you saved him from that fire. I wouldn't have my co-host here had you not saved him out of that fire."
Check out Kamaru Usman's comments below (10:53):
Merab Dvalishvili shares his perspective of the Henry Cejudo fight
Merab Dvalishvili had the most iconic moment of his fight against Henry Cejudo. However, it was a competitive affair where Cejudo had his moments and hurt 'The Machine' with a short left hook in Round 1.
Speaking about the fight in the aforementioned episode of the Pound 4 Pound with Kamaru & Henry podcast, Dvalishvili gave his take on how the fight unfolded:
"I was a little bit nervous to fight Henry Cejudo. He's a high-level fighter. In the first round, I tried to fight smart and I lost the round. Henry held me down. In the second round, I just did my thing and fought [my kind of] fight - like a crazy fight. It started working for me. It was a big challenge for me. But I had trained really hard, had a good training camp and I was very confident." [1:51]
The win over former two-division champion Cejudo earned Dvalishvili a shot at the UFC bantamweight title. He will challenge reigning champion Sean O'Malley in the Noche UFC 306 main event on Sept. 14.