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Merab Dvalishvili doesn’t have anything in writing just yet, but he’s confident the UFC will follow through with a title shot after his win over Henry Cejudo.

On paper, his nine-fight win streak prior to UFC 298 probably should have already put him in title contention, but instead Dvalisvhili was matched up with former two-division champion Henry Cejudo. He passed that test with flying colors, and afterward UFC CEO Dana White confirmed that Dvalishvili is next for the winner of the upcoming bantamweight title fight between Sean O’Malley and Marlon “Chito” Vera.

Of course, nothing is certain until contracts are signed, but Dvalishvili believes the UFC will do right by him after notching his 10th consecutive win in a row with the unanimous decision over Cejudo.

“Yes, I believe [they will give me the title shot],” Dvalishvili said on The MMA Hour. “Nothing in person. The first time I saw [matchmaker] Sean Shelby, he came in the locker room and he said, ‘Great fight.’ He said, ‘This crowd was going crazy on you,’ and I’m like, ‘Thank you, sir. Thank you so much for giving me another challenge to show everyone. I am the next contender for the title.’ And he said, ‘let’s go,’ and that was it.”

Despite having endured 15 minutes in the cage on Saturday, Dvalishvili wasted no time shifting his attention towards UFC 299, where O’Malley defends his title against Vera.

In fact, the 33-year-old Georgian fighter offered to play backup for the title fight in case somebody gets injured and a replacement is needed, even with the event less than three weeks away.

“I am crazy. I will take it,” Dvalishvili said of the backup role. “They don’t offer [it to me], but at the press conference, somebody asked Dana and he said, ‘We’ll see.’ Nobody offered me yet but I would love to be the backup fighter.

“I’m good. No problem. I don’t have problems to make weight in five days. I can just live my normal life and I will start weight cutting five days before and I’ll be ready.”

Ultimately, Dvalishvili doesn’t really care who walks out of the card in Miami with the title, although ideally he definitely has a preference on the opponents. That was evident after his win on Saturday, as Dvalishvili took notice of O’Malley sitting stoically in the front row after just watching him get an impressive win.

“Of course [I want to fight] Sean,” Dvalishvili said. “He’s the champion now. He’s very popular on TikTok. I want to fight him.”

Dvalishvili ran into O’Malley backstage but didn’t try to cause a scene or stir up any unnecessary friction in an attempt to sell a future fight. That kind of controversy, while frowned upon publicly by the UFC, has certainly led to some matchups being made, but Dvalishvili just isn’t interested in those kinds of tactics.

“I saw him, and people are like, ‘Go talk to him, chase him!’ I’m like, why?” Dvalishvili said. “I’m going to fight the champion next, whoever it will be. I never chase. I don’t like drama.”

As far as Cejudo goes, Dvalishvili paid homage to his opponent and even shared a few words with him in the cage after their fight ended. There was never any real bad blood between them, and Dvalishvili says Cejudo left him with a message of support after his win.

“He told me, ‘Go get the title,’” Dvalishvili said. “[He said,] ‘You’ve got this and you can win this.’”

Prior to UFC 298, Cejudo stated rather emphatically that his fight with Dvalisivhili was do-or-die — he would either win and move on to fight for UFC gold again, or he would lose and retire from the sport.

Cejudo didn’t get the chance to address his future after the fight, with White later saying that the 2008 Olympic champion had already called it a career in the UFC previously, and the moment on Saturday night thus belonged to Dvalishvili.

For his part, Dvalishvili wasn’t surprised that the UFC didn’t give him any mic time, but he also hopes that Cejudo reconsiders his future in the sport.

“Usually, the fights like this unless it’s the main event, they don’t give you microphones, especially after a loss. I understand,” Dvalishvili said. “No [he shouldn’t retire], he’s a good fighter. I will never tell somebody to retire because we love this sport.”

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If Johnny Eblen doesn’t get the win on Saturday night, he’ll go home without his title and his girl.

Days ahead of his highly anticipated return against 2023 PFL light heavyweight tournament winner Impa Kasanganay, Eblen was spotted out and about with OnlyFans model Jessenia Rebecca. Eblen reportedly dropped a whopping $ 85,000 during their afternoon shopping spree, spending $ 30,000 at Alex The Jeweler, $ 25,000 at Dior, and another $ 30,000 at Louis Vuitton

“It was an incredible day, and I’m so grateful to Johnny for his kindness,” Rebecca said following the experience.

As it turns out, Eblen’s kindness only goes so far. During a recent interview, Rebecca spoke of her relationship with the Bellator MMA middleweight champion, revealing that if he doesn’t get his hand raised at the PFL vs. Bellator event in Riyadh on February 24, their relationship will be as dead as his title reign.

“Then I’m out,” she replied when asked what would happen if Eblen loses. “He has to win.”

Jessenia Rebecca Defends Her Comments about ditching Johnny Eblen

Rebecca’s comments immediately drew the ire of fight fans who lambasted her in the comments section on social media. Responding to the backlash, the Instagram influencer suggested that she was simply being honest and would expect nothing less from Eblen.

“Since when was being honest wrong? Do you think if I stopped being attractive or gained a bunch of weight he would be with me? No,” she wrote. “He likes me cuz I’m attractive and I like him cuz he’s a champion. Either one of us can get dumped if we lose the thing that the other found attractive. Let’s start being honest in 2024.”

With a little something extra to fight for, are you putting any money on Eblen to come out on top?

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Brian Ortega doesn’t believe Ilia Topuria fought the same Alexander Volkanovski that he did nearly three years ago.

This past Saturday, Topuria knocked out Volkanovski in the main event of UFC 298 to claim the featherweight title. It was the 35-year-old veteran’s first ever loss in the weight class and as a man who previously faced the now ex-featherweight champion, Ortega says that that he’s not sure that was the same Volkanovski he had to square off against.

“It just got shuffled last week, bro!” Ortega when asked about the state of the featherweight division during his UFC Mexico City media day scrum. “Props to Ilia. He won. That was an impressive, very, very devastating KO that he got.

“For Volk, I’m trying to look at it from both perspectives. Either Topuria’s game plan was really good, staying calm, moving back, throwing power punches, and then Volk — to me — it didn’t seem like it was the same Volk. Then seeing him and being in front of him, I’m like, man, you’re moving different. But obviously he adjusts for every opponent he has, so who knows? But I am curious to see what’s going to happen now in the featherweight division.”

Ortega challenged Volkanovski for the featherweight title at UFC 266 in 2021, losing a unanimous decision, though he nearly pulled off an incredible submission in the third round.

Unfortunately for Ortega, Topuria’s win could be bad for him. Even before winning the title, “El Matador” claimed that he would not give title shots to any of the fighters who fell short against Volkanovski, instead saying they could “all go and retire.” But Ortega does not seem to be too bothered by that.

“My answer is always, ‘We’ll see,’” Ortega said. “We’ll see.”

First things first, Ortega has his own business to attend to before he can think about Topuria or title shots. This weekend, “T-City” rematches Yair Rodriguez in the five round co-main event of UFC Mexico City. Their first fight ended in controversy after a shoulder injury in the first round rendered Ortega unable to continue, and now, nearly two years later, he finally makes his return, and he’s anticipating a barnburner.

“Basically, we just started getting warmed up,” Ortega said of the first fight. “We were very dry, still trying to feel each other out, got ahold of each other, hit each other a little bit, felt each other’s strength. It was still partially in that feel out session, so it’s going to now be two rounds of that feel out session and then an extra added four after that. It’s going to be a good fight.”

UFC Mexico City takes place this Saturday at Arena CDMX in Mexico City.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Alex Pereira will not only headline arguably the biggest event of 2024 when he serves as one half of the main event for UFC 300, but he’ll do so as the betting favorite.

Despite having only two past fights in the light heavyweight division, Pereira has already earned a lot of respect, which is why oddsmakers have him favored to beat ex-champion Jamahal Hill when they clash on April 13. The opening odds for the fight from Sportsbetting.ag have Pereira listed as a slight favorite in his first title defense after knocking out Jiri Prochazka to claim the title this past November.

Here are the opening odds for the UFC 300 main event:

Alex Pereira: -155

Jamahal Hill: +135

Based on those odds, a wager for $ 155 on Pereira would pay out $ 100 if he’s successful, but a $ 100 bet on Hill would earn back $ 135 as the underdog.

Hill will be returning from a torn Achilles’ tendon suffered last year that forced him to relinquish his light heavyweight title, which then led to Pereira battling for a vacant belt a few months later.

Hill enters the fight off four wins in a row, including three knockouts and a lopsided decision over Glover Teixeira to claim the title back in January 2023. The unfortunate injury ended Hill’s reign before it ever really began, but now he’ll attempt to recapture the belt in April.

As for Pereira, the 36-year-old Brazilian has scored back-to-back wins over Prochazka and another former champion in Jan Blachowicz in his brief light heavyweight career. Overall, Pereira holds a 9-2 record in MMA, including a 6-1 résumé in the UFC, with his only loss coming to Israel Adesanya in a middleweight title fight.

Now Pereira will attempt to defend his belt against Hill in the final fight of the night for the historic card that happens at the T-Moble Arena in Las Vegas on April 13.

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