Bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili says his toe injury is of no concern heading into UFC 316.
Dvalishvili (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) runs things back with Sean O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) in the June 7 main event from Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. Just weeks before his title fight, Dvalishvili shared a video showing off a severely bruised pinky toe, raising speculation that it could be broken.
“Toe is good,” Dvalishvili affirmed on the “Believe You Me” podcast. “Like I said, if something, I can cut it off, but I don’t need to cut it off (laughs). It’s good. It doesn’t bother me.”
“The Machine” was asked about Conor McGregor withdrawing from his return fight against Michael Chandler at UFC 303 last June due to a broken pinky toe, but the champion tried to refrain from taking any shots at him.
“I don’t want to comment about Conor McGregor’s toe because I don’t know the exact pain or situation, but I still have nine other toes, and it’s fine,” Dvalishvili said.
Dvalishvili admitted that it could be hard to get up for a second fight with O’Malley after dominating him in their first encounter last September. He does, however, plan to fine tune a few things for their rematch.
“Not a big change, but maybe more striking,” Dvalishvili said. “It was my first title fight, and I was more focused on winning the fight, and I was the underdog and I didn’t care what people were going to say. Now, I’m going to be more focused to show a good fight, and I’m going to show more striking.”
