“Not a lot of OFFENCE” – Dana White shares his honest assessment of Merab Dvalishvili’s performance at UFC 278
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Jose Aldo and Merab Dvalishvili face off
UFC President Dana White usually doesn’t hold back his opinions on fighters at Post Fight Press conferences. He is known to voice his disappointments as well as praises for the fighters. In the UFC 278 post-fight presser the UFC president shares his assessment of the fight between Jose Aldo and Merab Dvalishvili.
Jose Aldo was taking on Merab Dvalishvili in a three-round in the bantamweight division. Aldo entered the arena with a big pop from the Utah audience. He also received a standing ovation from the crowd. Aldo was on a 3 fight-winning streak after a failed attempt at capturing the 135lbs crown against Petr Yan.
On the other hand, The Machine was on 7 fight win streak after tasting his last loss back in 2018. The Georgian struggled to get Aldo to the canvas in the fight. Despite repeated attempts, he was unable to get any significant success. Aldo who is known for his takedown defence defended the Machine’s takedown attempts pretty well.
Although not a lot of action happened in the fight, the Georgian native still did enough and controlled the fight to take the victory by Unanimous Decision on the Judges card. The crowd didn’t like the performance as boos rained down upon the final bell. The UFC President also joined the crowd in stating his disappointment in this fight and on Merab’s performance.
Related: “Too strong and relentless,” Conor McGregor, Teddy Atlas and pros react to Merab Dvalishvili edging Jose Aldo to secure biggest victory at UFC 278
Dana White isn’t impressed by Merab Dvalishvili’s performance against Jose Aldo
Following the UFC 278 fight card in Utah, the post-fight press conference was held as usual and the UFC President kicked the conference off by announcing fight bonuses. Dana answered a lot of questions from the media including about Ferguson‘s next fight, a review of the UFC 278 card, Edwards pulling an upset against Usman and many more.
When asked about Merab not answering the question about fighting his teammate Aljamain Sterling who is the current Bantamweight champion next. White went on to voice his disappointment on the fight and further stated that if Merab wants to fight for the title, he should’ve made a statement in front of the packed Utah crowd.
“I just think that Merab tonight, I didn’t see a lot of offence out of Jose Aldo. I think that you know when you’re on a card like this, the place is packed like this and you want to make a statement in that division, you go for it. Listen I get he’s fighting Jose Aldo and whatever it might be I don’t know. I don’t think Merab did himself a lot of favours tonight.” White responded.
After a win over the former WEC and UFC champion Jose Aldo, Merab is now on an 8 fight-winning streak. However with a division like Bantamweight you need to do something extraordinary to get noticed for the title shot. It would be interesting to see if he gets the title shot next or if he needs to prove his worth before getting the shot.
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Abhijit Singh
(125 Articles Published)