Bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili’s latest title defense will come against Cory Sandhagen at UFC 320 on october 4th in Las Vegas.
Dvalishvili is currently on a 13-fight winning streak at 135lbs, and that includes two successful defenses of the title he initially won by comfortably defeating Sean O’Malley on the scorecards back in September of last year.
Since then the 34-year-old Dvalishvili has picked up a unanimous decision win over Umar Nurmagomedov in his first title defense, followed by a submission finish of O’Malley in their rematch last month.
That’s ensured that Dvalishvili is unquestionably the dominant force in the division, having previously also beaten the likes of Henry Cejudo, Petr Yan, Jose Aldo, Marlon Moraes and John Dodson to name but a few.
One fighter Dvalishvili hasn’t faced yet though is the 33-year-old Sandhagen, who has been an ever-present in the top-end of the bantamweight rankings for a number of years now.
Sandhagen has come close to title contention in the past, but lost out in a title eliminator against Aljamain Sterling by submission back in 2020 and then a year later came off second-best on the scorecards in an interim title fight against Petr Yan.
Since then Sandhagen has won four out of his next five fights though, including a TKO finish of Deiveson Figueiredo a couple of months ago that’s led to the No.4 ranked contender getting another title opportunity.
Dvalishvili vs. Sandhagen co-main event’s a UFC 320 card that will be headlined by a light-heavyweight title rematch between Magomed Ankalaev and Alex Pereira.
