Top UFC bantamweight contender Merab Dvalishvili was involved in a scary five-car accident while taking an Uber in New York on Tuesday. Luckily, no one was injured.
A video of the aftermath was posted to social media showing Dvalishvili exiting a badly damaged car. The airbags deployed inside the vehicle and debris littered the street.
“I am in New York for one day, a couple of hours, and I got into a huge accident,” Dvalishvili said in the video. “I was in an Uber and our car got hit by some other cars. Look at the damage. I was sitting here. I got hit and I’m okay.”
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Dvalishvili (17-4) is coming off a one-sided decision win over former two-division champion Henry Cejudo at UFC 298 in February. His last three wins have been over former champions and he’s expected to fight bantamweight titleholder Sean O’Malley for the 135-pound championship later this year.
Dvalishvili is riding a ten-fight winning streak and is tied for former champion and teammate Aljamain Sterling for the most consecutive wins in UFC Bantamweight history. Dvalishvili also holds the record for the most takedowns in bantamweight history as well as the most total strikes landed.
Things are getting heated between Team O’Malley and Team Dvalishvili, with ‘Suga’ coach Welch refusing to defuse the situation.
Aljamain Sterling wants to fight Sean O’Malley again, and once he’s done with that maybe he’ll fight O’Malley’s coach for good measure.
Bad blood has been brewing between Team Aljo and “Suga” coach Tim Welch since video popped up online showing Welch pretending to be Sterling’s cornerman during the O’Malley fight. “Aljo, you gotta go!” Welch yells, moments before Aljo goes and gets cracked with a fight finishing counter.
Sterling insists he wasn’t reacting to what Welch was doing, but he was annoyed at the behavior of O’Malley’s coach during the fight. After his buddy and training partner Merab Dvalishvili threatened Welch, “Funkmaster” got in on the action too.
“You talked hella s— during my fight with Sean,” Aljo wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “The ref had to tell you to stfu multiple times. I wanted to slap you in between rounds and I regret not taking the fine for that … Let Sean talk shit, you don’t need to be chiming in on the shit talk unless you want the problems as well. It’s that simple bro.”
“You making yourself fair game,” he added in another tweet. “That’s all I’m saying.”
In a new episode of the TimboSugarShow, Welch reacted to Sterling’s latest comments.
“When [Aljamain] said he wanted to slap me between rounds, I went ‘Oh!’” he said, downplaying the heckling. “I bet you there were people yelling at Michael Jordan.”
“Dude, Aljo is trying to knock my buddy out. Aljo was flustered, and I get it. Bro, I never talk s—, I always give respect. But I must’ve been burning him pretty bad, I don’t know.”
“And then he was talking about ‘You’re putting yourself in the pool!’” Welch added. “Like what kind of pool? A street fight pool? What ruleset do you want to do? I’m not going to talk s— to anyone I think can f— me up.”
It all adds up to a potentially explosive fight week when Sean O’Malley and Aljamain Sterling’s teammate Merab Dvalishvili fight sometime towards the end of the year. While Merab has claimed the fight will go down in September at the Sphere, our sources say the event will be later than that. Until then, let the bad blood fester!
Netflix and Most Valuable Promotions announced Wednesday that Till is set to make his boxing debut against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at the July 20 Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul event. Ariel Helwani was first to report the news.
Till, a one-time UFC welterweight title challenger who also competed at middleweight, has been working on a move to boxing since parting ways with the promotion February 2023. He holds an MMA record of 18-5-1.
His bout with Chavez Jr. takes place at 190 pounds over six rounds. This marks Till’s first fight since a loss to Dricus du Plessis at UFC 282, his third straight setback and fifth in six outings.
“I’m very happy to be a part of this event,” Till said in a press release. “Paul vs. Tyson is going to be one of the biggest events of our generation, and to make my professional boxing debut on it is brilliant. I’m very happy with my opponent. I’ve been a fan of his father for many years and I’ve been a fan of Chavez Jr. too – he is a great fighter who I respect, but make no mistake about it, I am coming to knock him out in the first round. I am happy with where I am in life, and I am coming to make a statement on Saturday, July 20 in Texas.”
Chavez Jr. (53-6-1, 1 NC) is coming off of long layoff, having most recently defeated David Zegarra in December 2021. He’s no stranger to MMA crossover bouts, having fought legendary UFC champion Anderson Silva that same year, losing by split decision to “The Spider.”
Also added to the July 20 card is a matchup between prized Most Valuable Promotions prospect Ashton Sylve (11-0, 9 KOs) and fellow undefeated fighter Floyd Schofield (17-0, 12 KOs).
Paul, who runs Most Valuable Promotions alongside Nakisa Bidarian, meets heavyweight boxing great Mike Tyson in the main event. The card takes place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and airs live on Netflix.
Former undisputed UFC welterweight title challenger, Darren Till is finally set to make his return to combat sports amid months of continued speculation, with reports this Wednesday afternoon revealing the Liverpool striker is set to make his professional boxing debut on July 20. – taking on former WBC middleweight boxing titleholder, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
As per an initial report from Ariel Helwani, former UFC star, Till will make his professional boxing debut on the undercard of former heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson’s professional bout against Jake Paul – taking on ex-world gold holder, Chavez Jr. on July 20. in Arlington, Texas.
Mandatory Credit: Zuffa LLC
Darren Till set to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in boxing debut
“Darren Till will make his pro boxing debut on the Jake Paul x Mike Tyson Netflix card on July 20 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas,” Helwani posted on X. “His opponent will be Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (53-6-1, 1 NC). Fight will be contested at 190 pounds. Six, three-minute rounds.”
Breaking:
Darren Till will make his pro boxing debut on the Jake Paul x Mike Tyson Netflix card on July 20 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX.
His opponent will be Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (53-6-1, 1 NC).
Fight will be contested at 190 pounds. Six, three-minute rounds. pic.twitter.com/qnsfrMYHC1
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) May 15, 2024
Departing the UFC at the beginning of last year as he looked to nurse a slew of repetitive injuries, Till, a staple of Team Kaobon, had most recently suffered a third round rear-naked choke defeat to incumbent middleweight champion, Dricus du Plessis.
Mandatory Credit: Chris Unger – Zuffa LLC
As for Chavez Jr. – the son of former world champion and boxing Hall of Fame icon, Julio Cesar Chavez – has been sidelined for the past three years, taking home a decision win over David Zegarra in Culiacan.
Earlier this same year, Chavez Jr. took on former UFC middleweight champion, Anderson Silva in Guadalajara, suffering a split decision loss to the mixed martial arts icon over the course of eight rounds.
Over the course of his often-tumultuous professional boxing career, former WBC middleweight champion has landed wins over the likes of Sebastian Zbik, Peter Manfredo Jr., Marco Antonio Rubio, and Andy Lee, and has also taken on compatriot, current gold holder, Canelo Alvarez.
Who wins in a July scrap: Darren Till or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.?
Cherneka Johnson can celebrate being a world champion again, even if it looked like that wasn’t the case for a few fateful moments on fight night.
This past Saturday’s Vasiliy Lomachenko vs. George Kambosos boxing card went viral well before the main event, when Johnson’s bantamweight title bout against Nina Hughes flew off the rails during the reading of the scores. Ring announcer Dan Hennessey initially declared that it was Hughes who won a majority decision, when in reality it was Johnson that had actually earned the judges’ call.
The mistake was quickly corrected, but it was too late to stop Johnson’s moment from being overshadowed by Hennessey’s error.
“The feeling is just something I’ve never experienced before,” Johnson said on The MMA Hour. “It’s pretty crazy watching it again. There were butterflies in my stomach. How do you go from such a low point to trying to celebrate such a high point, you know?”
“When I hear a draw, I was like, ‘Aw man, come on,’” Johnson continued. “I was confident that I had done enough, so I was hoping the last two [scorecards] went my way — 98-92, I would have thought maybe 97-93 if anything, but then I was like, ‘OK, we’ve got this. We’ve got that in the bag.’ I felt the referee actually grab my hand, so I was sort of half ready to put my hand up too, and then it went to ‘and still’ and my heart sort of sank. I was like, ‘Oh wow.’ But me being me I was like, ‘Humble in defeat. Just take it on the chin. This is boxing.’ I wasn’t prepared on TV to kick up a stink about it, and yeah, it was a big low. A big, big low.”
Hennessey has since taken full responsibility for his mistake, apologizing to all parties involved via social media. Johnson said that she accepts the apology, not wanting to dwell on the moment much longer.
In video of the scene, referee Bill Seth can clearly be seen flinching as the call is made, stopping himself from raising Johnson’s hand and looking visibly confused. As it turns out, he had good reason to assume that it was Johnson whose name was about to be called.
“What had happened was the referee actually came and saw me after the fight and he had seen the scorecards before the announcement was made,” Johnson said. “So he was like, ‘I knew the scores, so I was ready to raise your hand. And then when it went to Nina, I was a bit shocked and I was trying to hold Nina’s hand down, but she put her hand up herself.’
“I didn’t really get an explanation [at the time]. It was just come back to the center of the ring and then start announcing the scores again.”
Unsurprisingly, Hughes and her team were less than thrilled with how the events of Saturday played out, and are already asking for a rematch. Though Hughes doesn’t bear any ill will towards Johnson, she believes she deserves the chance to regain her title.
She is not the brightest, what about the 92-98 score accurate? Majority who watched the fight scored 94-96 or 93-97 to me. Show was a shambles, REMATCH is the only solution in a neutral location @LeonSudbury1 @WBABoxing @loudibella @SkySportsBoxing https://t.co/K8R1ikTg26
— Nina (Smith) Hughes (@NinaSmith888) May 13, 2024
Respect and still friends after a war – aside from the result & what happened I am glad we both came out the ring intact & go back home healthy
Hopefully the rightful thing will happen and the rematch will be next @loudibella @LeonSudbury1 @WBABoxing @TheSugarNeekz pic.twitter.com/E7fSw4eydo
— Nina (Smith) Hughes (@NinaSmith888) May 13, 2024
Johnson isn’t sure what her next move will be, but if she steps into the ring with Hughes again, she’ll make sure there’s no chance for any scorecard confusion.
“I’ve seen brief parts of it,” Johnson said, when asked about Hughes and her team’s post-fight comments. “I try not to look into things too much. I was confident that I had won the fight. I’ve got the decision, I am the champ at the moment. Obviously, if I was to look in to their side, it would be quite frustrating also.”
“Whatever my team wants to do, we haven’t really discussed that as of yet,” Johnson said of a rematch. “But yeah, I definitely felt like it was one-sided, and to be honest, it probably wasn’t my best performance at this new style we sort of have. So if it was to happen again, it’s not going the distance.”
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