UFC 323 headliner sponsored by UFC sportsbook claims ‘there are no fixed fights,’ wants nosy influencers to ‘shut up’

Reigning UFC bantamweight champion, Merab Dvalishvili, is one of the most dominant fighters in combat sports, racking up 14 straight wins and capturing the 135-pound title along the way. Not surprisingly, “The Machine” makes a very attractive athlete for sponsors looking to capitalize on the growth of MMA.

That’s a two-way street, as the champ frequently uses his Instagram page to push the popular sportsbook and online casino (examples here and here). Perhaps that’s why Dvalishvili “slams fixed fight talk” (per the Email release) in his recent interview with Stake.com (read it here).

“First when I heard this news, I was shocked because I watched this (Isaac Dulgarian) fight specifically,“ Dvalishvili said. ”I was here last Saturday and watching these fights live and I know what I saw. The other guy was much bigger and he took his back and he was trying to choke. And then I know the commentators were criticizing Dulgarian. At first I thought the criticism was unfair because sometimes you still make some mistakes and you get choked out. So for me, the submission wasn’t weird because even though I’m a grappler, I can make simple mistakes like that.“

Stake.com (Stake.us in the United States) expanded its global partnership with UFC back in 2024.

“When I saw afterwards some Instagram influencer guy was talking about this saying how the fight was fixed, I actually commented on that too, like, shut up, what are you talking about?” Dvalishvili continued. “There are no fixed fights in the UFC, like, what are you talking about? And I was very mad, like, how dare you? But then after I saw that, I was breaking down everything, and then I was really shocked. Who knows, like if it’s true or not, but even up until today, I don’t believe it. I hope this fight wasn’t fixed. And then I don’t believe that there are any fixed fights in the UFC. It’s unfortunate, but we’ll see. We’re all gonna find out if it’s true or not.”