{"id":287201,"date":"2023-08-30T12:51:25","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T12:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=287201"},"modified":"2023-08-30T12:51:25","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T12:51:25","slug":"dana-white-blasts-sterling-and-dvalishvili-for-refusing-to-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/mma\/dana-white-blasts-sterling-and-dvalishvili-for-refusing-to-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Dana White blasts Sterling and Dvalishvili for REFUSING to fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Dana White blasts Aljamain Sterling and\u00a0Merab Dvalishvili for REFUSING to fight due to close friendship&#8230; with UFC bantamweight stars bizarrely lobbying for each other to get title shot<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Former champion Aljamain Sterling and friend\u00a0Merab Dvalishvili refuse to fight\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>They mutually decide to put friendship first, much to Dana White&#8217;s chagrin\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>UFC president said: &#8216;This is about finding out who the best in the world is&#8217;\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>UFC president Dana White has blasted\u00a0Merab Dvalishvili and Aljamain Sterling&#8217;s refusal to fight each other out of friendship.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The pair, who have been training partners for years, have long let it be known that they will not cross paths in the octagon.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sterling had hoped he could move up a weight class by beating Sean O&#8217;Malley at UFC 292, thereby allowing No 1 contender\u00a0Dvalishvili the chance to step up and fight for the vacant belt.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But O&#8217;Malley won the contest with a stunning finish, muddying the waters at bantamweight further with Sterling keen on a rematch.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The situation is frustrating White, who said: &#8216;Everybody in this room, and everyone watching knows how I feel about this s\u2014t.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/30\/12\/74870559-12461015-image-a-4_1693393542982.jpg\" height=\"461\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Dana White is frustrated that Aljamain Sterling and Merab\u00a0Dvalishvili do not want to fight<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/30\/12\/74870547-12461015-The_Georgian_left_and_American_right_are_close_friends_and_refus-a-24_1693393966373.jpg\" height=\"416\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The Georgian (left) and American (right) are close friends and refuse to lock horns<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I hate it. Why did you even get into this sport? If that&#8217;s your mentality and the way that you think: &#8216;I don&#8217;t want the title, I don&#8217;t want the championship, we&#8217;re friends, we&#8217;re this, we&#8217;re that.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;This is not about friendship. This is about finding out who the best in the world is, and if you don&#8217;t want to find out who the best in the world is, this is not the place for you.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;You should be somewhere else. There&#8217;s plenty of places to fight where they don&#8217;t give a s\u2014t what you do. It doesn&#8217;t work here.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Dvalishvili is on a nine-fight winning streak and is the obvious next contender for the new champion.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But he is actively campaigning for Sterling to be given a rematch, rather than chasing the opportunity himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It is a surprising act of friendship and one that clearly riles White, who wants the best to fight the best at all times.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And Sterling said on his Weekly Skraps podcast: &#8216;All jokes aside, I think if I don&#8217;t get the immediate rematch \u2014 if they were to offer me that immediate rematch for December, I&#8217;m just going to have to respectfully decline; but if they were to do it early next year like January or February, I would accept it in a heartbeat.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/30\/12\/74751141-12461015-Sean_O_Malley_revealed_what_Dana_White_said_to_him_after_his_dev-a-7_1693393610966.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Sean O&#8217;Malley is the new champion after knocking out Sterling in the main event of UFC 292<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;But if I&#8217;m not going to get the rematch, the next guy in line has to be Merab Dvalishvili.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Has to be. No. 1 contender. I don&#8217;t think any other matchup makes more sense than him.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>It will be fascinating to see how the UFC match-up both Sterling and his team-mate in the months ahead as they aim to keep interest in the bantamweight division alive with their new champion on top of the pile.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/mma\/article-12461015\/Dana-White-blasts-Aljamain-Sterling-Merab-Dvalishvili-REFUSING-fight-close-friendship-UFC-bantamweight-stars-bizarrely-lobbying-title-shot.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Dana White blasts Aljamain Sterling and\u00a0Merab Dvalishvili for REFUSING to fight due to close friendship&#8230; with UFC bantamweight stars bizarrely lobbying for each other to <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/mma\/dana-white-blasts-sterling-and-dvalishvili-for-refusing-to-fight\/\" title=\"Dana White blasts Sterling and Dvalishvili for REFUSING to fight\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dana White blasts Sterling and Dvalishvili for REFUSING to fight - Sportstoft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/mma\/dana-white-blasts-sterling-and-dvalishvili-for-refusing-to-fight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dana White blasts Sterling and Dvalishvili for REFUSING to fight - Sportstoft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dana White blasts Aljamain Sterling and\u00a0Merab Dvalishvili for REFUSING to fight due to close friendship&#8230; 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