‘It’s gonna cost you a lot’ — Dana White responds to Merab Dvalishvili after fan PUNCHED by coach at UFC 310
Dana White has told Merab Dvalishvili it will ‘cost you a lot’ if he keeps fighting with fans. This follows an incident at UFC 310 where a fan was punched by a member of Aljamain Sterlin’s team, and Dvalishvili was involved too. Dvalishvili is the current UFC bantamweight championGetty UFC CEO White handed Alexandre Pantoja his belt during the main eventGetty Sterling suffered a defeat to Russia’s Movsar Evloev at UFC 310 on Saturday night, which led to fans hurling abuse at his coaching team. Current bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili, who was cornering Sterling during his prelims bout, was escorted out of the T-Mobile Arena by security following the incident. However, it was another member of Sterling’s team who the threw punches, seemingly provoked by something the fan said that got under his skin. “Merab’s that guy. He’s that guy. This isn’t his first altercation,” White said at UFC 310’s post-fight press conference. “I don’t know if you guys noticed at the press conference yesterday too. “To the right, somebody yelled something. He’s in the middle of a conversation. He looked like he’s trying to see who said that. “Like what, you’re gonna run over there and you’re gonna fight this guy too? “It’s just the way he is. He’s built that way. And I don’t know if you saw, but he wasn’t sitting in the regular fighter section. We had to move him over. “…We try to diffuse this stuff before it happens and tonight we had a good game plan. I didn’t think he’d get into a fight walking out with Aljamain.” The UFC announced the main event and co-main for UFC 311 on January 19 during their broadcast in Las Vegas. Dvalishvili coached Sterling at UFC 310Getty But it wasn’t enough as Sterling lost to EvloevGetty Dvalishvili defends his bantamweight title for the first time in the co-main against Russia’s Umar Nurmagomedov, who has previously been cornered by the legendary Khabib Nurmagomedov. Meanwhile, the No.1 pound-for-pound UFC fighter and current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev puts his belt on the line against Arman Tsarukyan in the headline act. White continued by comparing Dvalishvili to the outspoken Sean Strickland, who takes on Dricus Du Plessis for the middleweight title at UFC 312 in Australia. “He’s my mini Strickland without the mouth,” White added, “What do you do? Let him buy the pay-per-view, I guess. I mean, I don’t know. You can’t keep fighting with f***ing fans. “It’s gonna cost you a lot. You can do it. It’s gonna cost you a lot of money, right? Dvalishvili is one of Sterling’s training partners@funkmastermma - instagram O’Malley knocked out Sterling at UFC 292Getty But Dvalishvili dominated O’Malley at UFC 306 to exact revengeGetty “Listen, man, I say it all the time. We’re in the f***ing fight business. This happens. We gotta deal with it.” This was not the first time that Dvalishvili had been involved in an altercation with a fan at a UFC event. Earlier this year, the UFC bantamweight champion jumped into the stands to confront a heckler during another UFC event. He revealed that the fan was taunting him with references to Sean O’Malley, who he was set to face at UFC 306. Dvalishvili won the 135-pound belt by defeating O’Malley at the Las Vegas Sphere in September in what was one of the UFC’s biggest-ever events. O’Malley was crowned the bantamweight champion after knocking out Sterling in August 2023, so there was extra motivation for Dvalishvili when the two crossed paths. View Tweet: https://twitter.com/hashtag/UFC310?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Speaking to Kevin Iole about the fan altercation, ‘The Machine’ admitted to “bullying” the fan. “So I was there watching jiu jitsu enjoying and of course the guy was screaming from the [stands],” Dvalishvili said. “‘Sean is your daddy, Sean is your daddy’ and I turn around and I look him in the eyes and I’m like shut up. “And then he was laughing at me. and he was [pointing] at me and… and I tell him [to] shut up. “And and he [kept] going and I tell him [to] come here and say to my face… I gave him three warnings…” “He was joking [with me] I guess, with one of his friends and he disrespected me… Everybody respects me and this one guy, I’m not going to let him disrespect me… “I told him to come and of course he’s not coming, he was laughing and I had to go. I tell him, ‘yeah, tell me now’… of course like I don’t want to hurt him. But I did bully him.” UFC 310 also witnessed Alexandre Pantoja defend his flyweight belt for the third time against UFC debutant Kai Asakura by securing a second-round submission win. Shavkat Rakhmonov became the first man to defeat Ian Garry in the co-main bout, Ciryl Gane earned a controversial split decision victory over Alexander Volkov, and Bryce Mitchell knocked out Kron Gracie with brutal elbows on the main card too. Vicente
Dana White has told Merab Dvalishvili it will ‘cost you a lot’ if he keeps fighting with fans.
This follows an incident at UFC 310 where a fan was punched by a member of Aljamain Sterlin’s team, and Dvalishvili was involved too.
Sterling suffered a defeat to Russia’s Movsar Evloev at UFC 310 on Saturday night, which led to fans hurling abuse at his coaching team.
Current bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili, who was cornering Sterling during his prelims bout, was escorted out of the T-Mobile Arena by security following the incident.
However, it was another member of Sterling’s team who the threw punches, seemingly provoked by something the fan said that got under his skin.
“Merab’s that guy. He’s that guy. This isn’t his first altercation,” White said at UFC 310’s post-fight press conference.
“I don’t know if you guys noticed at the press conference yesterday too.
“To the right, somebody yelled something. He’s in the middle of a conversation. He looked like he’s trying to see who said that.
“Like what, you’re gonna run over there and you’re gonna fight this guy too?
“It’s just the way he is. He’s built that way. And I don’t know if you saw, but he wasn’t sitting in the regular fighter section. We had to move him over.
“…We try to diffuse this stuff before it happens and tonight we had a good game plan. I didn’t think he’d get into a fight walking out with Aljamain.”
The UFC announced the main event and co-main for UFC 311 on January 19 during their broadcast in Las Vegas.
Dvalishvili defends his bantamweight title for the first time in the co-main against Russia’s Umar Nurmagomedov, who has previously been cornered by the legendary Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Meanwhile, the No.1 pound-for-pound UFC fighter and current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev puts his belt on the line against Arman Tsarukyan in the headline act.
White continued by comparing Dvalishvili to the outspoken Sean Strickland, who takes on Dricus Du Plessis for the middleweight title at UFC 312 in Australia.
“He’s my mini Strickland without the mouth,” White added,
“What do you do? Let him buy the pay-per-view, I guess. I mean, I don’t know. You can’t keep fighting with f***ing fans.
“It’s gonna cost you a lot. You can do it. It’s gonna cost you a lot of money, right?
“Listen, man, I say it all the time. We’re in the f***ing fight business. This happens. We gotta deal with it.”
This was not the first time that Dvalishvili had been involved in an altercation with a fan at a UFC event.
Earlier this year, the UFC bantamweight champion jumped into the stands to confront a heckler during another UFC event.
He revealed that the fan was taunting him with references to Sean O’Malley, who he was set to face at UFC 306.
Dvalishvili won the 135-pound belt by defeating O’Malley at the Las Vegas Sphere in September in what was one of the UFC’s biggest-ever events.
O’Malley was crowned the bantamweight champion after knocking out Sterling in August 2023, so there was extra motivation for Dvalishvili when the two crossed paths.
Speaking to Kevin Iole about the fan altercation, ‘The Machine’ admitted to “bullying” the fan.
“So I was there watching jiu jitsu enjoying and of course the guy was screaming from the [stands],” Dvalishvili said.
“‘Sean is your daddy, Sean is your daddy’ and I turn around and I look him in the eyes and I’m like shut up.
“And then he was laughing at me. and he was [pointing] at me and… and I tell him [to] shut up.
“And and he [kept] going and I tell him [to] come here and say to my face… I gave him three warnings…”
“He was joking [with me] I guess, with one of his friends and he disrespected me… Everybody respects me and this one guy, I’m not going to let him disrespect me…
“I told him to come and of course he’s not coming, he was laughing and I had to go. I tell him, ‘yeah, tell me now’… of course like I don’t want to hurt him. But I did bully him.”
UFC 310 also witnessed Alexandre Pantoja defend his flyweight belt for the third time against UFC debutant Kai Asakura by securing a second-round submission win.
Shavkat Rakhmonov became the first man to defeat Ian Garry in the co-main bout, Ciryl Gane earned a controversial split decision victory over Alexander Volkov, and Bryce Mitchell knocked out Kron Gracie with brutal elbows on the main card too.
Vicente Luque secured the fastest anaconda submission win in 52 seconds against Themba Gorimbo in the prelims and Dominick Reyes was also victorious against Anthony Smith.
