Merab Dvalishvili responds to callout from UFC San Antonio main event winner Cory Sandhagen

Merab Dvalishvili appears to be more than willing to accept Cory Sandhagen’s challenge.

Sandhagen was in action this past Saturday night (March 25). He went one-on-one with Marlon “Chito” Vera in the main event of UFC San Antonio. Sandhagen scored what appeared to be a decisive victory over Vera after five rounds of action, but judge Joel Ojeda turned in what many consider to be an egregious 48-47 score total in favor of “Chito.” Ojeda’s scores were overruled by the other two Octagon-side judges, and Sandhagen nabbed a split decision victory.

After the fight, Sandhagen respectfully called for a showdown with Merab Dvalishvili, who was in attendance. KO Reps filmed Dvalishvili’s live reaction to Sandhagen’s callout, and he was fired up. He then took to his Twitter account to double down on his excitement about the thought of mixing it up with Sandhagen.

Let’s go anytime anywhere 🦾⚔️

მევიდეეეს!… https://t.co/k5XIEKjk0q

— Merab “The Machine” Dvalishvili (@MerabDvalishvil) March 26, 2023

“Let’s go anytime anywhere,” Dvalishvili said.

Dvalishvili is coming off an impressive showing against former UFC Bantamweight Champion Petr Yan. While many believe Dvalishvili has done enough to receive a title opportunity, he has vowed to never fight his friend and teammate Aljamain Sterling, who currently holds the bantamweight gold.

Before his fight with Vera, Cory Sandhagen told MMAJunkie.com that he respected Sterling’s plan to move up to the featherweight division to allow Dvalishvili to compete for the 135-pound title.

“I think even if he does move up, I’ll probably follow him,” Sandhagen laughed. “I would really like to get that fight back, so maybe in the future that’ll happen.”

“I actually really commend Aljamain on making a move like that [going up to featherweight to avoid fighting Merab],” Sandhagen said.

“Whether he follows through with it is a different story, but I think him doing that for his close buddy is something that says a lot about Aljamain, and I really commend him on being that type of friend.”