Merab Dvalishvili battled through another broken nose to win his RAF 9 debut over Frankie Edgar by technical fall in Las Vegas.
Dvalishvili and Edgar clashed heads early in the match, resulting in Dvalishvili breaking his nose, just about eight weeks after he had previously broken it while training at Syndicate MMA in Las Vegas. The injury did not stop him from continuing and securing the victory.
"The nose was fine before, but I got a head butt and broke [my nose again]," Dvalishvili said after the match. "Who cares? I broke my nose many times. It’s never going to stop me. It’s just the nose broken. That’s what we do and it’s all good."
Following the win, Dvalishvili called out Henry Cejudo for a wrestling match and stated that he is waiting for a trilogy fight with reigning bantamweight champion Petr Yan. "As you guys know, I’m ready for a fight. I’m just waiting for Petr Yan, hopefully he will come back. I just saw he’s on vacation right now. I like to be busy and thank you, RAF."
Dvalishvili and Yan are tied 1-1 in their series after a fight at UFC 323 in December, and Dvalishvili has been promised another shot at Yan, though he does not yet know when that fight will take place.
