Firas Zahabi advises Merab Dvalishvili to work on finishes: “The fans will get sick of him”

Renowned MMA coach Firas Zahabi believes Merab Dvalishvili is doing himself a disservice by not working on finishing fights.

Dvalishvili is the newly-minted UFC bantamweight champion. He utilized effective pressure and grappling to thwart the striking of Sean O’Malley at UFC 306. The fight went the distance, and Dvalishvili was able to avoid the big shot to walk out of the Sphere in Las Vegas with UFC gold.

While Dvalishvili’s stock has never been higher, Zahabi believes the low finishing rate could come back to haunt the new 135-pound king.

RELATED: CHAEL SONNEN ARGUES SEAN O’MALLEY SHOULD GET IMMEDIATE UFC TITLE REMATCH AGAINST MERAB DVALISHVILI

Firas Zahabi Urges Merab Dvalishvili to Work on Finishes

In a new video on the Tristar Gym YouTube Channel, Firas Zahabi said that Merab Dvalishvili will hurt his relationship with the UFC if he continues going the distance (h/t MMAFighting.com).

“His finishing record is abysmal, I’ve got to be honest,” Zahabi said. “I’m telling you guys, I love the guy, he’s a world champion. I think he’s awesome. However, his finishing rate — imagine you can take down almost everybody you’ve ever fought, and you literally only have one submission. That doesn’t make any sense. … You’re literally taking everybody down, how come you never finish?

“He needs to have in-depth, super-deep courses on how to finish — submission, ground-and-pound — he has to change his style. And he can do it. He’s a very talented, intelligent guy. He needs to do it, because if he doesn’t do it, the fans will get sick of him. … They’ll get sick of him running around the ring and just taking people down. They’re going to get sick of that. He has to entertain the crowd, he has to show finishing ability. If he doesn’t, it could be disastrous to his career.”

Dvalishvili has insisted that he wants to build a strong partnership with UFC CEO Dana White now that he’s a titleholder. Whether that will lead to more finishes for the Georgian remains to be seen. Regardless of how you feel about his fighting style, one can’t deny that Dvalishvili did what he needed to do be reach the mountain top.