Merab Dvalishvili gets 100% real about potentially training with Conor McGregor after FaceTime call: "He's really motivated"

Merab Dvalishvili recently addressed the possibility of training with Conor McGregor and revealed that the two spoke via FaceTime after the recent UFC Shanghai event.

Dvalishvili is set to face Cory Sandhagen in a bantamweight title fight at UFC 320 in October and has expressed a desire to fight again before the end of the year. With the UFC White House event confirmed to be taking place next year as part of the America250 celebrations, many believe McGregor could potentially make his return on that card.

It appears the Irishman wants to train with Dvalishvili before his possible comeback. In an interview with the NELK Boys, 'The Machine' revealed that he spoke to McGregor about training together after his next two fights and said:

"I think he's really motivated. Actually, when I was in China, I met his friends and we FaceTime'd, and he asked me if we could train, and I said, ‘Let’s go, Conor. I would like to train with you.’ Now I have a fight, I’m not gonna go nowhere. After my fight, I wanna fight again this year. After I can go visit him... We both follow each other on Instagram... Hopefully, we can do it. I'm excited for him, I would like to see him in a [UFC] White House fight."

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When Merab Dvalishvili got real about Cory Sandhagen's title challenge

Merab Dvalishvili is looking forward to facing Cory Sandhagen in the octagon and admitted that the American deserved a shot at the title. Dvalishvili also welcomed Sandhagen's unorthodox fighting style.

In an interview with Ariel Helwani (via @arielhelwani on X), Dvalishvili shared his two cents on the Sandhagen matchup and said:

"I also told him he's the most deserving contender today, especially [because] we never fought each other and he always was [a] company guy. And he was always fighting the best guys. He beat a lot of good guys like Song Yadong, [Marlon] 'Chito' Vera, close fight with [Petr] Yan."

He continued:

"He's a new style. We've never fought each other, and we know there is no MMA math. The style makes the fight, and Cory Sandhagen, he's a different style. We've never fought each other. It will be a test for me."

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Edited by Nishant Zende.