The Machine: From Georgian Farm to UFC Gold

In early 1991, three months after Merab Dvalishvili was born, his home country of Georgia declared independence from the Soviet Union. The two basically grew up together. Merab had an idyllic upbringing as a young child. He lived on a farm in a village with fresh food and cows, chickens, and pigs. He grew up playing outside with his cousins, who were his neighbors; learning to swim in a nearby river.

The young country started experiencing growing pains when he was little. “Life was tough” at times “I was missing bread because there was no bread.” There were less jobs, less access to gas, and times when the lights did not work. His brothers started school in the capital Tbilisi, so they moved when he was nine years old.

“Even if you’re a good student, it doesn’t make sense. There were people with two degrees, and they don’t have jobs.” Merab decided he wanted to leverage his love of movement and sports to be able to support himself and his family, by becoming an athlete. “When I moved to the capital city, I started looking for some sports.” He tried soccer, rugby, and some wrestling, none of those sports sparked his interest enough to pursue.

Judo became his sport until there was a change to the rules in 2013. Merab discovered MMA and instantly fell in love with it. While serving in the military for the mandatory twelve-months, he began working on training however he could, so he could continue with MMA when he was finished with his service.

Upon leaving the military, he won ten fights back home in Georgia and one here, in South Carolina; making him feel unbeatable. "My dream was to fight UFC, and I was thinking ‘that must be easy’ you know? I will go to the US, train there was good trainers, and train partners. There must be good gyms there; and maybe a couple of fights, and I will go UFC because I’m unstoppable."

To hear more details about his fights, please listen to my interview with Merab here:

He chose to move to New York for MMA opportunities, and because there was a good number of Georgians living there. Merab worked construction while there to support himself, since the money from his fights alone was not enough to keep the lights on. When he was signed by the UFC and earning good money from fighting, it took some practice to learn how to budget.

Even though he lost his second fight, he was given a bonus because the fight was great. “I’m like ‘oh, I’m rich now, I don’t need to work anymore, and I quit my job.” But that money went a lot faster than he had thought it would, since pay is per fight, and he only fought twice a year. Merab found himself back at work for a period of time, a little wiser about spending and saving, making sure his account was not at $0.00 before his next fight.

MMA and sports in general taught Merab discipline, and his drive to reach his goals was strong. “Let’s say today, if I take off, I know my opponent is training. So, I have to train two times more to beat him.” Merab possess a unique drive, his focus has always been clear to him: not only to become the best he can in his sport, not just for himself, but for the benefit of his family and friends.

Jaymi Padres met Merab shortly after she had moved to Las Vegas herself, and they have been friends ever since. About Merab, Jaymi said, “He is a very sociable person who brings positivity and a good time everywhere he goes. He might get upset for a moment, but very quickly pushes forward choosing to live positively.”

He would love to defend his position as the #2 ranked Bantamweight Champion in the UFC, since his friend is the Champion, and he has no desire to take the title from him. “I’m not fighting my friend for money or even title.”

He ended up purchasing two houses, one in New York, and another in Las Vegas, close to UFC headquarters, and the UFC gym in Vegas. He’s living his dream, the definition of the American Dream. “Everybody’s good now, everybody has a good life, you know?"