Merab Dvalishvili has long been considered one of the best bantamweights in the world. On the other hand, Islam Makhachev is considered by many to be the pound-for-pound best fighter in all of mixed martial arts right now.
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Both men have received high praise for their work in the UFC, with Dvalishvili attempting to go 4-0 in a calendar year at UFC 323 on Saturday, while Makhachev is now a two-weight world champion.
But in a recent interview, Dominick Cruz explained why Dvalishvili is his preference when it comes to their work in the wrestling department.
Cruz’s take on Dvalishvili and Makhachev’s struggle
“I was always focused on making it as exciting to watch as it was to win – by combining two things,” Cruz told MMA Junkie. “Merab has found a way to do that with his wrestling style, a little bit more than Makhachev. If you look at Merab’s style of wrestling, his is like a takedown rally – like 33 takedowns or something. And the guy who gets up would say, ‘I’m really good at getting up.’ No, his style is exciting. He’s abandoning you and you don’t even realize it.
“He makes you stand up just to stay behind you. … When you’re tired of going down over and over again, he now sits on top of you and beats you up. In between, he also throws a lot of hard punches. He mixes the striking with these takedown attempts. You either have the top guy riding you out, or you get the takedown artist. Personally, I’d rather watch a takedown artist than a guy riding someone in the top position in wrestling.”
“Makhachev, he’s the guy who runs you down. He gets one takedown and you don’t get back up. He just burns the clock and makes it look dominant and easy. But if you look at Merab, he does something like that, but it’s crazier to watch, it’s fun to watch. While he stays safe, while he’s wrestling, he also gets up and shows you an assortment of different takedowns and an assortment of different punch entries to get the takedowns.
“That’s cool for me to watch, and it’s a different wrinkle in the grappling than you see with Makhachev. When I look at Merab, he’s using more tools, so it makes it a little more interesting to watch because it almost looks like the guy has a shot, but realistically he’s pinned to their back while they were on their feet.”
Quotes via MMA junkie
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