Will Merab finish a fight ever again?

[CobraCobretti]

73% decision in his whole MMA career. 10% finishing rate in the UFC, only finish being Marlon Moraes who is now on a 7 fight TKO/KO loss streak.

Merab is now on the top of the food chain, the challenge only gets greater and greater. He is a dominant wrestler and cardio machine but I'm not sure if he can finish an opponent during the rest of his UFC career.

 

[Spath]

Five rounders certainly give him opportunities to finish fights. He uses his cardio as a weapon and that weapon pays dividends the longer the fight goes on. Third, fourth and fifth round are hell for anyone fighting him.

 

[svmr_db]

Merab Dvalishvili defeats Sean O'Malley in round 4 (TKO, cardio failure)

 

[BigTruck]

It's truly bizarre how some fighters are natural finishers and others literally can not do it

 

[Deceasedxo]

The main ways Merab can finish are late into a 5 rounder by dominating the cardio game and taking advantage of a gassed opponent either by getting lucky standing or more likely a hail mary sub. It's gonna be rare with his current gameplans but it can happen. I feel if he leaned more into levelling up his subs, he'd be a monster finisher 'cause his cardio and grappling are clearly top notch.

 

[ZCrz]

As long as O'Malley is champ Merab is not getting anywhere near a title shot.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

73% decision in his whole MMA career. 10% finishing rate in the UFC, only finish being Marlon Moraes who is now on a 7 fight TKO/KO loss streak.

Merab is now on the top of the food chain, the challenge only gets greater and greater. He is a dominant wrestler and cardio machine but I'm not sure if he can finish an opponent during the rest of his UFC career.

I think his finish rate will go up a little if and when he's fighting all 5 round fights. He doesn't seem to have much punching power or submission offense so he needs to overwhelm people to get finishes.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

Five rounders certainly give him opportunities to finish fights. He uses his cardio as a weapon and that weapon pays dividends the longer the fight goes on. Third, fourth and fifth round are hell for anyone fighting him.

Yeah, I think Merab is probably the fighter that would most benefit from an extra 10 minutes of fighting. I can definitely see him getting some 4th and 5th round finishes once he starts getting 5 round fights.

 

[RemyR]

Merab's last 3 opponents:

Henry Cejudo
Petr Yan
Jose Aldo

Not exactly easy bums to finish.

 

[CobraCobretti]

Merab's last 3 opponents:

Henry Cejudo
Petr Yan
Jose Aldo

Not exactly easy bums to finish.

And it only gets harder from this point on. Doesn't change the fact that he has 12 fights in the UFC and only one finish in Marlon Moraes. His opponents down the road weren't excatly world beaters but I guess he would have needed 5 rounds also against them.