Merab Dvalishvili extended his lengthy winning streak by defeating Cory Sandhagen in the co-main event at UFC 320.
Dvalishvili set a new record for most takedowns in a five-round title fight by landing 20 against Sandhagen as he took home a unanimous decision win Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Th previous record was 16 set by Sean Sherk in his 2007 lightweight title fight against Hermes Franca.
Dvalishvili also holds the UFC record for most all-time takedowns after breaking Georges St-Pierre’s longstanding record earlier this year, and he was able to take Sandhagen down regularly throughout the 25-minute contest.
Sandhagen looked sharp in the opening round, out-landing Dvalishvili 58-32 in total strikes and landing at a higher efficiency. He also defended three of Dvalishvili’s four takedown attempts.
The champion was able to eventually wear down the challenger as the fight progressed.
More surprising than the relentless grappling pressure from Dvalishvili was when he rocked Sandhagen with punches in Round 2, landing 33 significant strikes in the round and only absorbing two. Dvalishvili also repeatedly took Sandhagen down to the canvas.
He was successful on eight of his 13 takedown attempts in the second round and added multiple takedowns and accumulated cage control time in the third, fourth and fifth rounds
The 34-year-old Georgian had been saying in the buildup to the event that he planned on becoming the first fighter to knock Sandhagen out. The only time Sandhagen has been finished in his pro career was back in 2020 when he was submitted by Dvalishvili’s longtime teammate and former 135-pound champion Aljamain Sterling.
Although the finish didn’t occur, Dvalishvili still extended his winning streak to 14 in a row, which is the fourth-longest streak in UFC history. Only Anderson Silva (16), Islam Makhachev (15) and Kamaru Usman (15) have registered longer winning streaks than Dvalishvili's current run.
Most of Dvalishvili’s wins during his streak have been via decision. He was coming off a submission win over former champ Sean O’Malley at UFC 316 in June, which snapped a streak of five consecutive unanimous decision victories.
Dvalishvili said after the victory he is interested in facing Petr Yan next and ideally later this year. Yan is a former two-time titleholder that has worked his way back into the title picture. Dvalishvili holds a five-round decision win over Yan in a 2023 non-title bout.
Sandhagen, a 33-year-old from Colorado, earned his shot against Dvalishvili by stopping former two-time flyweight titleholder Deiveson Figueiredo in May.
Earlier on the UFC 320 main card, Jiri Prochazka pulled off an incredible third-round comeback against Khalil Rountree Jr. The pair of former 205-pound title challengers went back and forth with Rountree getting the better of most exchanges through the first two rounds, however in Round 3 Prochazka changed gears and poured on the offence.
Prochazka began landing powerful punches, knees and kicks that quickly sapped Rountree’s energy and was relentless in his pursuit of the knockout. He found it with a massive left hook along the cage that sent Rountree to the floor. The 32-year-old Czech is 6-2 in the UFC with both his losses coming in title fights to Alex Pereira.
Youssef Zalal submitted Josh Emmett with a slick armbar that forced a verbal tapout 98 seconds into their featherweight matchup. Zalal and Emmett are the only two fighters to have gone the distance with former featherweight and current lightweight champ Ilia Topuria. Zalal has won eight in a row and submitted five of his past six opponents.
Joe Pyfer kicked off the main card by submitting Abusupiyan Magomedov. It was Magomedov’s first submission loss in 12 years.
UFC 320 was headlined by Alex Pereira reclaiming the light-heavyweight championship in a rematch with Magomed Ankalaev.
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