Merab Dvalishvili nationality: Where is UFC’s bantamweight star from and his ethnicity?

Merab Dvalishvili, the 33-year-old cardio phenom, was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. He currently competes in the UFC bantamweight division and earned his #2 ranking in the division. Merab Dvalishvili’s nationality and ethnicity were of no question since ‘The Machine’ proudly represented his home country, Georgia.

The Georgia region has recently captured the attention of MMA fans. Many popular fighters like Ilia Topuria, Roman Dolidze, Giga Chikadze and Merab Dvalishvili himself hailed from the country. ‘The Machine’, with his nine-fight win streak, tore through the bantamweight division to become the front-runner of Georgian fighters. Currently, he has an MMA record of 16-4 with an impressive promotional record of 9-2.

What is Merab Dvalishvili’s Nationality and ethnicity?

Merab Dvalishvili is a citizen of Georgia. Also, since he was from the South Caucasus, he is a member of the Caucasian ethnic group. He began training at an early age, learning various martial arts like judo, sambo, qartuli chidaoba and khridoli (traditional fighting styles). Then, he left Georgia for the United States after turning 21 to pursue his dream of becoming an MMA fighter. But, it came with hardships since he had to work as a construction worker for about seven years to fund his dreams.

Soon, coaches Ray Longo and Matt Serra gave Dvalishvili a home in their fight team and helped him refine his techniques. As such, he found friendship with the former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling. Owing to his relationship with ‘The Funkmaster,’ the Georgian even gave away his opportunity to fight for the title. As such, this remained a dream fight for the UFC fans.

However, amidst Aljamain Sterling’s departure from the 135lbs weight division, Dvalishvili looked fierce about claiming the championship soon and making his country proud. He is patriotic and even tattooed Geogia’s flag with its borders on his chest.

What religion does Merab Dvalishi follow?

Merab Dvalishvili is an Eastern Orthodox Christian throughout his life. As such, he primarily attended the Georgian Orthodox Church. The long history of religious harmony within Georgia’s borders was one of the reasons Dvalishvili enjoyed practicing Christianity there. Still to this day, ‘The Machine’ visited his home country to spend some time spiritually and train in the traditional martial arts he learned during his childhood.

Before signing with the UFC, the Georgian fighter participated in several MMA promotions, including Ring of Combat, where he achieved a 7-2 record. As such, he made his UFC debut in December 2017 against Frankie Saez in a fight night event.

However, his start in the UFC wasn’t as favored by Merab Dvalishvili since he lost his first two UFC fights. But, ‘The Machine’ made a humongous comeback and put up an eight-fight win streak to etch his name as one of the best wrestlers in the UFC. As of this writing, Dvalishvili is to fight Henry Cejudo in a potential title eliminator in UFC 298. So, UFC gold was well within the grasp of the Georgian native.

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