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Ahead of UFC 316: Merab Dvalishvili vs Sean O'Malley 2, Dvalishvili sparked concerns among fans by posting images on social media showing a brutal cut he suffered in training.
The laceration looked deep and raised questions about his ability to appear in the octagon for his next title defense.
Check out Merab Dvalishvili's photos of sparring with cut on face below:
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However, fans can now be relieved as Dvalishvili's coach, John Wood, has revealed that the injury his pupil displayed on social media was nothing more than "a fingernail scratch." During an interview with Inside Fighting, Wood said:
"If people don't understand this by now — Merab loves to post s**t to get everybody riled up, you know? It literally was like a fingernail scratch. He got poked, and it just went in. Blood was trickling down. It looked like cool photos, so he posted them. But there is no cut. Everything's fine."
Wood added that 'The Machine' is geared up and focused for his upcoming bout.
"And like I said, this is typical Merab. He loves to get everybody going and fired up, and he just doesn't care. You could hit that dude in the head with a baseball bat and split his skull open, and he's going to tape it together and show up for the fight... He's so locked in and focused on what he's planning to do."
Check out John Wood's comments below (7:32):
Merab Dvalishvili nearly pulled out of UFC fight due to staph
Merab Dvalishvili defended his bantamweight gold for the first time by defeating Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311. Dvalishvili's coach, John Wood, in an interview with MMA Fighting, revealed that 'The Machine' was about to be pulled out by him from the previous bout as he was suffering from a staph infection.
Hence, Nurmagomedov's claim that he broke his hand during the fight is unfounded because 'The Machine' had bigger problems but never made an excuse or backed out.
Wood said:
"I think Umar was going to be the toughest fight for Merab at the time. We beat them and they came out like, 'Oh I was injured, I'm this, I'm that'. Well Merab was half dead for that fight. He had an open wound, had a staph infection, he was on all kinds of antibiotics. If it was up to me, I would have pulled him out from that fight."
Check out Merab Dvalishvili's coach's comments below:
