Merab Dvalishvili held on to the bantamweight title for the third time in 2025 with a unanimous decision win over Cory Sandhagen in the UFC 320 co-main event.
Dvalishvili now has the third-longest win streak in UFC history, only behind Islam Makhachev, Kamaru Usman and Anderson Silva, per ESPN.
Dvalishvili has wasted no time in showing that he’s one of the most dominant featherweight champions of all time. The 135er has now racked up three title defenses since the turn of the calendar to 2025.
Dvalishvili beat Sean O’Malley to earn the title in September of 2024 and hasn’t looked back. He beat Umar Nurgamodev with a dominant unanimous decision before he took out O’Malley with a third-round submission in a rematch.
With Sandhagen now behind him, it likely won’t be long before we see him in the cage again. Dvalishvili laid out his plans ahead of this fight with an eye on another title defense in mind for 2025.
if I win, I’m gonna come back quick, turn around. I want to fight in December. I will ask the UFC [for] a favour to give me another fight in December or even November,” he said in August.
“I don’t care, I can come back, because Petr Yan is [a] clear contender right now. He deserves it, I don’t want to make him wait too long.”
Dvalishvili beat Yan back in 2023, but the former champion has wins over Song Yadong, Deiveson Figueiredo and Marcus McGhee to put himself right back in title contention.
Yan would make sense as the next challenge. His previous loss to the champion will make him a big underdog, but Dvalishvili already holds wins over the top four fighters in the UFC rankings.
It’s hard to see anyone really pushing Dvalishvili until a new contender comes along or he decides to move up to featherweight.
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