Written by Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images
Firas Zahabi, the head coach of UFC legend Georges St-Pierre, was impressed with Merab Dvalishvili’s wrestling at UFC 306, but if the new bantamweight champ wants to become a big star, he has to change his style.
Dvalishvili earned a unanimous decision against Sean O’Malley in the main event of the UFC’s most recent pay-per-view card earlier this month. Zahabi is familiar with Dvalishvili as a person and as a fighter, but he’d like to see “The Machine” pick up a few wins that don’t involve the judges.
“On the ground, guys, I’ll tell you something, Merab never finishes,” Zahabi said on the Tristar Gym YouTube channel. “Look, I love Merab… I love his personality. I love the craziness, I love the fact that in the beginning of Round 1, Merab is yelling at O’Malley’s corner. … He’s a very charming, lovable character. Dana White called him a moron, he’s like, ‘Ahhh, that guy’s a moron.’ … The only one thing you can predict about Merab is that he’s going to shoot that takedown. His cardio is un-matchable.
“The good thing about Merab, his cardio is amazing. His personality is amazing. The bad thing about Merab, he doesn’t finish — he doesn’t even get close to a finish.”
Throughout St-Pierre’s impressive championship run, he also went to his fair share of decisions. While that gets you victories, it may not get the fan base behind you.
Zahabi was along for the ride with “Rush,” all the way until St-Pierre stopped Michael Bisping at UFC 217 in November 2017 to capture the middleweight title in his final fight. Zahabi’s hope is that Dvalishvili can start adding stoppages to his résumé, and believes if he doesn’t, the fans will turn on him — and quickly.
“His finishing record is abysmal, I’ve got to be honest,” Zahabi said. “I’m telling you guys, I love the guy, he’s a world champion. I think he’s awesome. However, his finishing rate — imagine you can take down almost everybody you’ve ever fought, and you literally only have one submission. That doesn’t make any sense. … You’re literally taking everybody down, how come you never finish?
“He needs to have in-depth, super-deep courses on how to finish — submission, ground-and-pound — he has to change his style. And he can do it. He’s a very talented, intelligent guy. He needs to do it, because if he doesn’t do it, the fans will get sick of him. … They’ll get sick of him running around the ring and just taking people down. They’re going to get sick of that. He has to entertain the crowd, he has to show finishing ability. If he doesn’t, it could be disastrous to his career.”