“He punched my eyeball one time,” Aljamain Sterling reveals STUNNING details of Merab Dvalishvili’s training before UFC 298

Former UFC bantamweight champion, Aljamain Sterling, revealed that he fought teammate Merab Dvalishvili before his fight at UFC 298.

“He punched my eyeball one time,” Aljamain Sterling reveals STUNNING details of Merab Dvalishvili’s training before UFC 298

Merab Dvalishvili fought Aljamain Sterling (Image via Imago)

Merab Dvalishvili won his fight against Henry Cejudo at UFC 298. Teammate Aljamain Sterling revealed that Dvalishvili did an intense training session with him before the fight. Here is what happened:

Aljamain Sterling recently released an episode of his podcast, The Weekly Scraps. There he described his intense warmup with Merab Dvalishvili for UFC 298. Sterling said: 

Fight day, I did four workouts. One with Din Thomas in the morning, hit pads for 20 minutes, then I spar with Merab three rounds, three hard rounds… getting the absolute dog sh*t kicked out of my calf, he punched my eyeball one time, touched me back of the head, did something to my kneecap. I was in a fight.
Aljamain Sterling via The Weekly Scraps
YouTube video

Aljamain Sterling and Merab Dvalishvili warmed up for UFC 298 by sparring for three hard rounds. Sterling is a former UFC bantamweight champion. He was Dvalishvili’s cornerman for this fight. Dvalishvili’s coach, Ray Longo, also described the intense sparring in one of his recent interviews. Meanwhile, Sterling described the sparring on his podcast. He said Dvalishvili did significant damage to his calf, punched his eyeball, his kneecap, and much more.

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Aljamain Sterling and Merab Dvalishvili are close friends and teammates at the Serra-Longo Fight Team. Sterling joined the team early in his professional career while Dvalishvili joined later. Both fighters have trained together for years and have a strong bond. Sterling has described his friendship with Dvalishvili before. He revealed that they would never fight in the octagon unless they were both offered life-changing money.

Merab Dvalishvili beat Henry Cejudo at UFC 298

Merab Dvalishvili won against former bantamweight and flyweight champion Henry Cejudo. He beat Cejudo by unanimous decision at UFC 298. The fight took place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Merab Dvalishvili bodyslams Henry Cejudo on the canvas in front of Mark Zuckerberg at UFC 298
Merab Dvalishvili bodyslams Henry Cejudo on the canvas in front of Mark Zuckerberg at UFC 298 (via UFC on TNT/ MMA Fighting)

It was an intense back-and-forth fight that went the full distance. Dvalishvili is known for his relentless takedowns. He controlled the second round and picked up the pace in rounds two and three. All three judges scored the fight 29-28 in favor of Merab Dvalishvili. This win makes it ten consecutive wins in a row for Merab Dvalishvili in the UFC.

Henry Cejudo had said he would retire from MMA if he lost to Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 298. Cejudo said that a win would put him in a position to fight for the UFC bantamweight title. However, a loss would mark the end of his fighting career saying it was all or nothing for him. Cejudo had returned from a three-year retirement in 2023 and lost to Aljamain Sterling via split decision at UFC 288.

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