Former UFC and Bellator fighter Chael Sonnen challenged for titles in two divisions across two promotions, but never claimed gold for himself. After seeing UFC bantamweight Merab Dvalishvili refuse to compete for the belt while his friend and training partner Aljamain Sterling is active, Sonnen has some brutal advice.
“Merab, if I had your phone number and knew how to reach you, I would have called you. I gotta tell it to you like this. Merab has come out with a statement.
Chael Sonnen Offers UFC Advice To Merab Dvalishvili
He’s gonna wait. He’s going to wait until Sean O’Malley and Aljo do their rematch. And once they rematch, that will then open the door for Merab to come into a title fight. But between now and then, he’s going to wait.
Merab is saying, ‘I’m going to do nothing else. My next fight will be for the belt.’ In fact, he qualifies it by saying, ‘I’m even willing to wait a year.’
When your phone rings and you’re given an opportunity, when you turn it down and talk about, ‘I’ve won nine fights in a row, I’ve proven who I am,’ is that contingent on the fact that Aljo has a backdoor deal?
That he will get Sean sometime in the near future? Because, if not, it would really seem as though Merab is risking his career.”
Dvalishvili’s training partner, Aljamain Sterling, lost the bantamweight title to Sean O’Malley only a few short weeks ago at UFC 292. O’Malley surged to the title on the back of a win over former champ Petr Yan, over whom Dvalishvili claimed the most recent of his nine straight wins.
Merab Dvalishvili, says Chael Sonnen, isn’t doing enough “Merab is great. He is a great talent, and he’s beaten former world champions.
We don’t do anything in this sport based on paper and résumé. The only way you can wait: the mandate of the masses. [The only ones who can wait around] are wildly popular and famous guys, stars who know how, in-between fights, to keep that star nice and shiny and bright.
If you’re not fighting, how do you stay in the media? I do not believe, as much as I like Merab, that he is equipped with that skill.
“The champion of the world in the division right now, Sean O’Malley, did not win nine UFC fights to get there. That isn’t a criteria. I don’t know that Merab [understands].
I’m not convinced that Merab is the number one contender. I can only imagine a year from now, trying to resurrect an argument that isn’t valid today. If Merab wants to wait, I would not get in the way.
But understand that Aljo isn’t next for Sean, it looks like ‘Chito’ is. I don’t wanna see Merab make that mistake. I don’t believe he is the number one contender right now, and if he sits out a year, he’s anything but.”
