Ilia Topuria's beautiful message to Merab Dvalishvili after his UFC victory: "A legend."

UFC 316 took place early Saturday morning. Merab Dvalishvili put his belt on the line against former champion Sean O'Malley. This was a rematch of the first bout, in which The Machine (Dvalishvili's nickname) won, taking the bantamweight crown (135 pounds or 61.2 kilos). Expectations were even higher for this one. Many believed the American would have made the necessary adjustments to win the rematch.

And so it seemed at the start of the fight. A much more aggressive O'Malley, who seemed capable of better defending the Georgian's takedown attempts, began to give that impression. However, in the third round, Merab Dvalishvili left no room for doubt, knocking down and holding the challenger on the ground before ultimately submitting him. The champion consolidated his position at the top of his weight class once again. Dvalishvili has now gone 13 fights without losing, one of the longest streaks in UFC history. At the same time, there doesn't seem to be a sufficiently dangerous opponent who, on paper, could stand up to him .

Before this fight, WOW 20 took place , where Ilia Topuria, as a shareholder and promoter, appeared at a press conference. He always remained confident in his friend's victory. "He has to do what he always does: go in there and continue to dominate. I have no doubt that once again he will emerge victorious from that octagon ," he responded to a question from Irati Prat of Marca. Said and done, the Spanish-Georgian was more than accurate in his decision to call the fight.

After the result was announced, Ilia Topuria publicly congratulated Merab Dvalishvili on X: “Nothing more to say. A Legend ,” he posted. This friendship goes back years. Dvalishvili and the Topuria brothers have been very close since they joined the UFC. In fact, Aleksandre Topuria traveled to Newark with fighter Guram Kutateladze to see his performance firsthand. They have already trained many times together. So much so that it wouldn’t be surprising if Merab were to attend Ilia Topuria’s next match against Charles Oliveira as an official member of his corner.