The fact that Merab Dvalishvili is back in Las Vegas, readying to defend his bantamweight title again in the main event of UFC 323 this weekend against Petr Yan would be alarming if it wasn’t becoming the norm for the man with the most apt nickname in the UFC right now.
Saturday marks the fourth title defense of the year for “The Machine,” and second in three months, having just turned back the challenge of Cory Sandhagen at the start of October. That came just four months after he submitted “Suga” Sean O’Malley in their rematch at UFC 316, which followed his rally to hand Umar Nurmagomedov the first loss of his career and successfully defend his title for the first time in January at UFC 311.