Don’t anticipate Alexandre Pantoja ever sharing the fighting arena with Merab Dvalishvili.
Pantoja stands as one of the premier pound-for-pound competitors in the UFC today. He has held the flyweight championship since 2023. Both Pantoja and Dvalishvili are slated to appear on the main card of UFC 323 on December 5th. Pantoja will be defending his championship against Joshua Van, while Dvalishvili will be defending the bantamweight title against Petr Yan in a rematch.
Many have speculated whether Pantoja might consider entering the 135-pound title chase, provided he continues his dominance in the flyweight division. In an interview with TMZ Sports, Pantoja stated unequivocally that he has no intentions of facing “The Machine” (according to MMAMania.com).
“I consider Merab to be among the best fighters globally, without a doubt. He’s ranked number three, maybe even number two, pound-for-pound,” Pantoja stated. “Merab presents a formidable challenge to anyone in his division….It’s not a simple decision to consider moving up 10 pounds and assuming you can defeat someone like Merab, understand? When we discuss a 10-pound difference between my division, Flyweight, and Bantamweight, it’s a significant disparity…If you observed Weili Zhang versus Valentina Shevchenko, you could see the difference in their sizes.”
Pantoja didn’t entirely dismiss the possibility of challenging for the bantamweight title if Sean O’Malley were to somehow reclaim the gold. O’Malley is scheduled to compete on the UFC 324 card against Song Yadong on January 24th.
As for Dvalishvili, he will be striving for a historic achievement at UFC 323. Should he triumph over Yan, he will establish a new benchmark for the most successful title defenses within a single year in UFC history, totaling four. Throughout 2025, Dvalishvili has already defended his championship against Umar Nurmagomedov, O’Malley, and Cory Sandhagen.
Pantoja has emphasized that his primary objective remains to continually demonstrate his superiority in the 125-pound weight category. Only time will reveal whether Pantoja decides to reconsider his stance.
