Tbilisi, Georgia native Merab Dvalishvili, 33, is the fourth mixed martial artist to defeat Henry Cejudo, 37, of Phoenix, Arizona, United States in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The first three are Demetrious Johnson, Joseph Benavidez and Aljamain Sterling.
Featuring 12 MMA matches, “UFC 298” was held at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, USA on February 17, 2024. The ninth bout was a bantamweight contest between Dvalisvili and Cejudo.
Jonathan Romero served as a the referee. After three five-minute rounds, he raised the hand of Dvalisvili, who was declared the winner via unanimous decision.
Losing to Dvalisvili downgraded Cejudo’s professional MMA record to 16 wins and 4 losses. On the other hand, the Georgian MMA fighter also now 16 wins and 4 losses.
Aside from Georgia, four other Asia-Pacific countries were represented at “UFC 298”. Zhang Mingyang, Rinya Nakamura and Roman Kopylov solely represented China, Japan and Russia, respectively.
Georgia was represented by Dvalishvili and Ilia Topuria, who is also fighting out of Alicante, Spain. Also on the card were Australia’s Junio Tafa and Alexander Volkanovski.
Volkanovski defended the UFC Featherweight Championship title from Topuria.
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