Merab Dvalishvili won his debut at RAF 9 with a dominant showing over UFC Hall of Famer Frankie Edgar, but he didn’t walk away unscathed.
Early in the match, Dvalishvili clashed heads with Edgar while battling for position, and he immediately grabbed at his nose. Following the conclusion of his technical fall victory, Dvalishvili revealed he suffered yet another broken nose after he endured a similar injury just recently while training at his home gym at Syndicate MMA in Las Vegas.
“The nose was fine before, but I got a head butt and broke [my nose again],” Dvalishvili told MMA Fighting after the match. “Who cares? I broke my nose many times. It’s never going to stop me. It’s just the nose broken. That’s what we do and it’s all good.”
Dvalishvili seemed almost proud showing off a similar injury after he busted his nose eight weeks ago, but he didn’t seem too bothered, callling it “just another typical day in my life.”
Following the accidental clash of heads during his wrestling match Saturday, Dvalishvili seemed to know the same thing happened again with his nose almost shifting across his face in similar fashion. The broken nose didn’t stop Dvalishvili from continuing his match and beating Edgar in his RAF debut.
Dvalishvili isn’t spending much time worrying about the injury, because he immediately called out Henry Cejudo for a wrestling match after his win at RAF 9. Add to that, Dvalishvili is patiently waiting for his trilogy against Petr Yan after he was promised another shot at the reigning bantamweight champion following a loss this past December at UFC 323 that evened their series at 1-1.
In a bit of good fortune, Dvalishvili will have plenty of time to heal from his latest facial injury as he still has no idea when the fight against Yan is going to happen.
“I like to be busy,” Dvalishvili said. “As you guys know, I’m ready for a fight. I’m just waiting for Petr Yan, hopefully he will come back. I just saw he’s on vacation right now. I like to be busy and thank you, RAF.”
