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WHAT. A. SHOW. The Georgians took the night in Vegas and a new contender has risen amongst the 205.
Merab Dvalishvili displayed a marvelous 3 rounds of combat as he stumped Cody Stamann in an absolute BANGER. The pace of the fight was electric and put that fight as a strong nominee for a FOTY. Merab's pace & stand up game was incredible. We all knew about his elite grappling and ground work... but the transitioning and velocity while on the attack throughout the entire fight was something to behold. Merab is f'n for REAL. The hook work and all-around stand up game was a deciding factor in his contendership. Give this machine a top 5 in the division. Merab is so entertaining to watch and he put on, in my opinion, a top 5 performance of the year thus far on Saturday. This dude is a PROBLEM & Cody Stamann will back that up.
Stamann was game on Saturday, he looked great. Stamann's takedown defense against Merab was incredible, especially considering the constant barrage that Merab put on Stamann. Despite the loss to Merab, he should still be considered a rising contender & I don't believe he deserves to drop in the rankings at all. Merab was just that damn good.
Vegas 25's co-main event saw the other Georgian, Giga Chikadze destroy the veteran Cub Swanson's liver as he dropped and tko'd Swanson with his trademark "Giga Kick". Giga delivered the brutal blow just 63 seconds into the opening round as he blossoms into a SERIOUS contender, extending his UFC record to 6-0. Check out the brutal liver strike that lay'd Cub to waste and extended the Georgian's MMA win streak to 8 in a row:
video via twitter// all footage owned by the UFC and Zuffa LLC.
Instant Kill! Dropped upon impact... just brutal man. Ninja Giga is a bad cat and a serious featherweight contender. Home boy even brought his octagon confidence to the post-fight interview as he called out none other then; Max Holloway. Bold move... I do like the confidence and I recognize his 6 fight win streak in UFC. Max just had a performance of the year in January though... gotta fight 1 more in my opinion. Max is a step ahead on the ladder... probably the next challenger for the title. The Ortega/Volk fight being delayed could give Giga his wish though, if Max wants to stay warm & risk his #1 contender token until the Ortega and Volk title fight concludes. Nonetheless, Giga put on a helluva performance Saturday and becomes a challenger in the featherweight division in the future. Hats off to the Georgian boys bringing some noise to their homeland and to the UFC title pictures.
The night concluded though with a Czech brotha stealing the whole show with his performance of the night awarding knockout on Dom Reyes in the main-event & his killer warrior haircut. Jiri Prochazka is a bad, bad man, ladies and gentlemen & an absolute nightmare for all those in the 205 division. Jiri might have already earned a title shot as well as a reputation as one of the most exciting athletes on the entire UFC roster. The dude beat the hell out of a pretty rock solid Dom Reyes in crazy pace and in mega-entertaining action. Despite Reyes' comeback attempt and valor spirit... Jiri just kept moving forward towards Reyes eventually being the third fighter in UFC history to knock an opponent out by a spinning back-elbow. A gorgeous one at that. Watch the poetry in motion that created a true contender amongst the 205:
video via @UFC//twitter
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