UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili revealed on social media this weekend that he suffered a broken pinky toe while head-kicking a sparring partner, but his coach John Wood has now spoken out to downplay concerns that the injury could nix his title rematch against Sean O’Malley at UFC 316 in just two weeks time.
“He loves to rile everybody up,” Wood told Submission Radio. “The thing is, as much as people think, ‘oh, that’s stupid or this or that.’ He would never post something that was going to take him out of a fight. “So guys, if he’s posting something it’s really not that bad and it’s not going to bother him that bad.
“I’m sure he broke his toe but like you don’t understand. Every camp and every fighter, even O’Malley says it, everybody is banged up. There’s a level of injuries you go into fights with. That’s the way it is. That’s the way it’s going to be, and that’s the way it always is. It’s just one of those things, obviously, Merab likes to post about a little more than everybody else. It’s alright, though. He’s all good.”
Wood went on to continue to underline the fact that Dvalishvili has fought through much worse injuries in the past, yet is still unbeaten in his last 12 fights.
“That’s nothing compared to a lot of the things we’ve had going into fights,” Wood said. “He’s had some massive injuries going into some massive fights before, and been banged up. Broken ribs and backs complete out of whack. But that’s just the way it goes. He’s going go show up and do his job no matter what.”
