Merab Dvalishvili Picks Holloway Over McGregor

Merab Dvalishvili rarely sands down an opinion before handing it over.

That is part of the charm and part of the danger. In a N3on YouTube interview, later circulated through clips shared on X by Dovy Simu, the UFC bantamweight champion bounced from Ilia Topuria’s battered postfight condition after Justin Gaethje at UFC Freedom 250 to the cleaner gambling question sitting at UFC 329: Max Holloway or Conor McGregor, the sequel nobody in this sport can discuss quietly.

Dvalishvili’s Topuria comments were forceful, but not reckless. He backed the idea that Topuria had serious vision trouble tied to orbital damage, while keeping Gaethje’s intent out of the verdict. That is a meaningful line. MMA has enough pretend judges on social media; Dvalishvili sounded more like a fighter describing what he thought he saw, not a commission announcing a case.

Merab Dvalishvili on Topuria Damage

Dvalishvili painted Topuria’s condition in ugly terms after the Gaethje fight. His central claim was that Topuria could not see properly after round two because of damage around the eyes. He also pointed toward a sequence where he believed Gaethje’s hand position may have contributed to the problem, describing something closer to finger contact than a normal punch.

Still, he did not turn the interview into a character attack on Gaethje. Dvalishvili made clear he respects him, and the way he framed the moment left open the possibility that it happened without malice. That matters because the material provided does not include an official ruling, a disciplinary result, or any commission statement. It is one elite fighter’s read on a violent exchange, not a closed legal file.

Gaethje, Topuria and the Gray Area

That is where these debates usually live. Topuria’s game depends on clean reads, quick counters, and confidence in tight traffic; compromised sight changes the entire geometry of a fight. Gaethje, meanwhile, has spent his career in collisions where chaos is not a side effect but part of the weather. Without a formal finding in the cited material, the conversation remains exactly there: uncomfortable, plausible, and unresolved.

• Dvalishvili made the comments during a N3on YouTube interview.
• Dovy Simu later posted the relevant interview clips on X.
• Dvalishvili said Topuria dealt with orbital damage and major vision issues after round two.
• He favored Holloway over McGregor for UFC 329, while admitting a McGregor win would carry huge impact.

Holloway vs McGregor UFC 329 Pick

The McGregor-Holloway question pulled Dvalishvili into a different kind of calculation. He gave McGregor credit for winning their first meeting by decision at UFC Fight Night 26 in 2013, back when both men were still moving toward the versions that later defined them. McGregor would become the first UFC fighter to hold titles in two divisions at once. Holloway would build an all-time featherweight body of work and remain one of the sport’s most durable measuring sticks.

Dvalishvili’s pick was Holloway, and the logic was not complicated. Holloway has been working, competing, and keeping his body in fighting rhythm, while McGregor has been away from active MMA for a long stretch. That does not erase McGregor’s threat, especially with the bout framed at welterweight and with his size now part of the discussion. It does mean the fight tilts toward a basic truth fighters understand better than promoters: timing is rented, not owned. Holloway’s advantage is continuity. McGregor’s is the blast radius that follows him into any arena, because one win over Holloway would immediately pull attention toward bigger names, bigger money, and possible contender talk around Justin Gaethje.

Jon Anik has already raised the idea of McGregor becoming a possible leading contender for Gaethje if he beats Holloway, according to the source material. Dvalishvili is not picking that outcome. He is picking Holloway at UFC 329.