Dvalishvili Criticises Goddard’s Ending Of The Sterling-O’Malley Match

Follow Us Now!

MMA superstar of the Bantamweight division, Merab Dvalishvili has joined Aljermain Sterling to criticise Goddard’s handling of the match in which sterling, Merab’s teammate, lost his Bantamweight Championship belt.

Remember that Sterling has since challenged O’Malley to a rematch, which the latter does not seem keen to accept. O’Malley has gone on, booking other matches and enjoying the title.

According to Dvalishvili, Goddard did not give the champion enough time to defend his title. He repeated consecutively that the match was going on fine.

Aljo was doing what he was supposed to do. He was there. He was playing smart. He was fighting a smart fight. Of course, the plan was to take Sean down, but Sean was doing good footwork and everything.

In the second round, people start booing Aljo and people affect Aljo, and Aljo made the decision to close the distance and strike. That’s when Sean got him, but Aljo was still in. He was fighting. He was trying to grab the leg, and he turned on the side, and that’s when Marc Goddard stopped him. It was my opinion, as a fighter, I say it was an early stoppage.

Explaining his position further, Merab Dvalishvili said:

Me for example, when I’m fighting, I rather die. I rather go out. I rather sleep. I don’t want you to save me, I’m a fighter. That’s why I’m preparing. I rather get knocked out because we need months, sometimes one year, to fight. It’s not like we’re fighting every day.

You see now what happened to the champion. If you gave them a chance, it wasn’t a cold knockout, you know. That was it, but Aljo handled it very well like a champion. Me, right away, I was screaming, ‘Early stoppage. Early stoppage.’

Some think the fighter was talking from a grudge he has against Marc Goddard, because of an incident that took place in a match in which Dvalishvili was contesting in 2018. It was Dvalishvili’s second UFC contest.

During the match, Goddard had ended the fight by a TKO, though Dvalishvili had neither resigned or shown signs of inability to continue.

‘Marc Goddard was the side referee, and the main referee who was inside the cage let me fight. He don’t stop the fight because he knew, and he saw my eyes, I was still fighting. Of course, I was in a tough spot, but every time he checked my hand, I give thumbs up. I was good. I was showing.

‘Once Ricky Simon got me, of course the choke was tight. It was hard to run from there, but I knew I had one minute. I wasn’t going to tap in that fight, and I was going to fight it because I was winning the fight. The main referee gave me time, and he let me fight. He didn’t stop me because if he did, I would’ve protest, ‘I’m not sleeping, why did you stop it.’

‘When the bell rung and the fight was over, I wake up and said I’m good. Yeah, so it was going to go to score. … but Marc Goddard said I was sleeping with the choke, but if I was sleeping or choked out, why didn’t you stop me? You let me fight and now let’s go to the score. This is a technical TKO or submission after the bell rang, and the fight was over. I moved on, but now I have Marc Goddard phobia. Every time I see the man, I’m just panicking.’

Though both Sterling and Dvalishvili are unsatisfied, it seems Goddard had no intentions of having a fighter die on his watch.