Merab Dvalishvili’s rise in the UFC isn’t just about wins, it’s about the way he wins. Round after round, he presses forward with an engine that refuses to cool, chaining takedowns, scrambles, and strikes with a rhythm that feels almost inhuman. In the bantamweight division, where athletes pride themselves on pace, Dvalishvili operates on a completely different setting that lives up to his moniker, ‘The Machine’! 

But nicknames don’t just stick because they sound cool. They stick because they describe something undeniable. And in Merab Dvalishvili’s case, “The Machine” became more than a label; it became a reflection of everything that makes him impossible to break. So where did the name come from? And how did it become the perfect shorthand for one of MMA’s most relentless forces? Ahead of his rematch with Petr Yan at UFC 323, let’s dive into the origins of one of the most apt nicknames inside the Octagon.

How Merab Dvalishvili’s nickname was coined

Born on January 10, 1991, in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, Merab Dvalishvili’s story to the zenith is an inspiring one. The fighter started his MMA journey by making wrestling his base. Dvalishvili was very young when his parents introduced him to the art of Qartuli Chidaoba (Traditional Georgian wrestling). He also trained in Khridoli, Sambo, and Judo for self-defense

When Dvalishvili was 21, he understood that to make it big in the world of MMA, he would have to get himself to the United States. He immigrated to the land of opportunities and trained under Ray Longo and Matt Serra.

According to his teammate and UFC lightweight fighter, Matt Frevola, it was he who gave Merab Dvalishvili the nickname ‘Machine’ because he was rag-dolling everyone in the gym. In his own words, “So Merab is just killing it, you know. Like running through people and I’m like, Merab, we need to get you a name for the American people and I’m like you are a machine bro like you don’t stop, and then it came to me and I was like ‘The Machine.’

He further added, “Merab ‘The Machine’, I planted that seed in the gym. I started calling him, ‘You are a Machine Merab, let’s go ‘The Machine’ and he is ‘The Machine’,’ you know. He fights that way, he doesn’t stop, he trains that way. The Machine is a perfect nickname.”

The cardio and pace that defined Merab’s nickname ‘The Machine’

If you want to understand Merab Dvalishvili’s nickname, look no further than March 11, 2023, the night he overwhelmed Petr Yan in Las Vegas in their first encounter. In a main event that told the story of pressure versus precision, Dvalishvili’s output drowned Yan’s famous ability to make adjustments.

He attempted 49 takedowns, the most in a bout in UFC history and secured 11 of them, wobbled Yan with a leg kick in Round 2, and had the former champion’s eye swollen shut by the final bell. Big moments were rare in the fight, but the Georgian dictated every second of the pace.

Yan is known for being well-conditioned. But that night, nobody questioned which fighter had the deeper gas tank. Beyond that performance, Merab Dvalishvili’s reputation has only grown. He now holds the record for most total takedowns in UFC history with 117 to his name and is the first and so far the only fighter to have crossed the 100 mark in the promotion! 

That’s why “The Machine” isn’t just a moniker, it’s a promise. A promise that Merab Dvalishvili will wrestle until his lungs burn, scramble until his legs give way, and pressure until even the most elite bantamweights crumble. And as he steps into UFC 323, aiming to make history with a fourth title defense this year, one question remains: Can Petr Yan stop the Machine, or will the gears keep turning and grind him to pieces once again?