Khabib Nurmagomedov's coach weighs in on Merab Dvalishvili's surge in P4P rankings

Khabib Nurmagomedov's coach shared his thoughts on UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili jumping two places in the UFC pound-for-pound rankings.

With his modified north-south choke, 'The Machine' defended his title for a second straight time against Sean O'Malley at UFC 316 last weekend.

Dvalishvili now stands at No.2, just next to dominant former UFC lightweight champ Islam Makhachev. According to Javier Mendez, coach of Makhachev and his mentor, Nurmagomedov, this is too much of a jump for the Georgian.

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In a recent episode of Javier & Mo Show on YouTube, Mendez said:

"That's a little too much of a jump because, you know, [Ilia] Topuria didn't discredit himself by his last performance. But Merab [was] impressive. But Topuria, his performances were great too."

Mendez then continued to talk about Ilia Topuria, who sits at No.4 in the pound-for-pound rankings,

"He [Topuria] destroyed everybody, you know. And then how he destroyed Max [Holloway]. [But Dvalishvili] looked good. He looked good."

Check out Javier Mendez's comments below (11:16):

Javier Mendez weighs in on Merab Dvalishvili being called UFC bantamweight GOAT

After UFC 316, conversations started floating around about Merab Dvalishvili being considered the greatest bantamweight champion in UFC history. In a division ruled by the likes of Dominick Cruz, T.J. Dillashaw, and Henry Cejudo, this is quite a huge distinction given to the Georgian.

In the aforementioned video, Mendez said

"No, I think it's way too early to say that...Who are we talking about? [Dominick Cruz] okay. Who else? [Aljamain Sterling] Aljo, okay. [TJ] Dillashaw. So Dillashaw, no. He [Dvalishvili] beats Dillashaw, in my opinion. Dominick was pretty damn good when he was on a tear." [9:22]

When his co-host pointed out that Merab Dvalishvili "cleaned out" his division en route to becoming a champ and defending the belt twice, Mendez agreed and softened his stance:

"He could very well be considered the GOAT now, yeah...[But] maybe not yet. But I sure think that he's right up there. He's one or two, you know. So he's right up there, I mean today."

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Edited by Tejas Rathi