Merab Dvalishvili sparked panic when a social media post hinted at him having staph infection. But, he has dismissed this ahead of UFC 306.
The bantamweight number one contender is set to face Sean O’Malley in the UFC’s long-awaited event at The Sphere on September 15, an event that has reportedly cost over $16 million.
The 33-year-old has had to be patient in his pursuit for a title fight, and it seemed he may have had to wait a little longer after a concerning Instagram post.
The Georgian dismissed these rumours during an interview with Scott Fontana for New York Post Sports. This came after their chat was interrupted by UFC doctors.
He said: “I’m sorry my friend, the UFC doctors are just checking me out – they were looking at this (pointing to his arm), nothing. They thought I have a ring or something but I’m good.”
“I took a picture, and a lot of people commented ‘Oh he has this’ – they thought I have a staph infection but I’m good man, nothing.
“I don’t have nothing, nothing – as you see there is no staph infection.”
Merab Dvalishvili Also Provides an Update on His Cut
The visit from the UFC doctors also saw them check up on a cut he suffered during training recently. A video of him cutting out the stitches did the rounds on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Dana White claimed that the cut was bad, but Dvalishvili promises that it is healing just fine.
He said: “It’s good, it’s good, we’re gonna use more cream to heal up [the] cut, the cut is done, we’re just going to use more cream to just help heal up you know.”
Quotes via Bloody Elbow
Will Merab Dvalishvili get his hand raised at UFC 306? Let us know in the comments below!
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images