John Wood has clarified his comments on UFC champion Merab Dvalishvili being the greatest bantamweight of all time.
Wood told MMA Junkie Radio that if Dvalishvili (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) beat Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311, that would make him the greatest bantamweight of all time. Dvalishvili ended up handing Nurmagomedov his first loss, but Wood’s statement was met with a lot of criticism considering it was title defense No. 1 for Dvalishvili.
Dvalishvili’s head coach appeared to retract his claim slightly, but explained what separates “The Machine” from every other bantamweight.
“I was one of the first people to make that statement, and I got my ass chewed out online about it from everybody – and I had the asterisk next to it,” Wood told MMA Junkie Radio. “I believe per talent wise of who he’s beat, he’s already there. If all those guys were title defenses, title challenges, it’s no question. If you put a title defense next to all of those guys, it’s no question. So, I think that we’re going to be able to shortcut the line a little bit by the amount of talent that he’s beat already.
“I don’t think we’re exactly there yet. I believe the title defenses is what really cements your legacy as GOAT status or reaching any of those types of things. I think we need a couple more. We go in and beat O’Malley and then we beat whoever is next there, then I don’t think there’s any question. Body of work, I’ll say I think he has the best body of work out of any fighter in that division pound-for-pound. I think as far as GOAT status, it’s very hard to achieve that without those title defenses.”
Dvalishvili runs things back with Sean O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 316 main event (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
