Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili scored his first title defense at UFC 311 this past weekend (Sat., Jan. 18, 2025) when he handed Umar Nurmagomedov his first professional loss via unanimous decision from inside the brand-new Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California.
But it came with pre-fight stress as “The Machine” injured himself during training camp, and today (Mon., Jan. 20, 2025), he shared videos of the gnarly injury.
One of Dvalishvili’s coaches, John Wood, revealed how he cut his leg.
“He got his leg cut up on our bleachers,” Wood told Submission Radio. “He was walking by the bleachers and literally got cuts all over his leg. He left it, kept training through it, and eventually got it stitched up. Then stitches busted, and then he restitched it, and then just his whole shin became infected. It was a concern of even getting cleared for this fight.”
If someone was going to get cut on gym bleachers, it was definitely going to be Dvalishvili, as the guy injures himself in any way possible (remember him jumping into an icy lake and cutting his head?).
Despite having an incredibly messed up leg, Dvalishvili fought through it and drowned Nurmagomedov in the championship rounds to secure the win at UFC 311.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
