Welterweight champion Islam Makhachev appeared rather irked by Merab Dvalishvili's reaction to his UFC 330 win.
While watching Makhachev (29-1 MMA, 18-1 UFC) retain his ***** le against Ian Machado Garry less than two weeks ago, Dvalishvili took umbrage with the promotion allowing him to carry his Russian flag.
"I thought they're not allowed a flag in there? They don't let me use the flag," Dvalishvili told Nina Drama. "This flag is banned everywhere in the world, and only of course they show here in the UFC. It's crazy."
Dvalishvili (21-5 MMA, 14-3 UFC) will look to reclaim his bantamweight ***** le from Petr Yan (20-5 MMA, 12-4 UFC) when the pair battle in a trilogy bout, which co-headlines UFC 333 on Oct. 24 in Abu Dhabi. Yan put an end to Dvalishvili's ***** le reign by defeating him at UFC 323.
"Yes, I did see his reaction," Makhachev said of Dvalishvili (h/t Red Corner MMA). "I saw the video of him watching my fight, and he didn't seem happy to see me succeed in the octagon, but I don't pay attention to things like that. He had already said some things about it a lot of times, but Petr Yan beat him and raised the flag afterwards. And I think he'll beat him again and make him silent."

#dvalishvili #title