Merab Dvalishvili shows off bloody cuts on leg suffered ahead of UFC 311 title defense

Merab Dvalishvili’s leg was in bad shape at UFC 311, not that anyone seemed to notice.

Somehow, Dvalishvili not only successfully defended his bantamweight title with a spectacular five-round performance against Umar Nurmagomedov in Saturday’s co-main event, he also managed to hide a wounds that might have prevented him from competing at all.

At the evening’s post-fight press conference, Dvalishvili showed the media evidence of two cuts on his right leg and he followed that up with a social media post on Monday showing how they looked prior to fight week.

Click past first slide to see pictures and video of Dvalishvili’s bloody wounds.

Dvalishvili appeared on The Ariel Helwani Show on Monday to further discuss the injury, revealing that he actually had to pull a trick on the commission to make sure he would be cleared to fight.

“I was doing cardio training on the stairs and I hit the stairs with my shin,” Dvalishvili said.

“The cut was still open and it was taking so long to heal up and it finally closed now in fight week,” he continued. “I was worried the commission was not going to let me fight. I was doing everything, putting creams every day, doing massage, and all the therapies, and actually California has a very strict commission. They check everything, my body, and Thursday I had pants on and the commission asked me to show him my leg, my shin. I lifted my left leg pants and showed him the chin and he kept talking, the second time he asked me to show him my other leg, I showed again left leg and he didn’t know there was a cut.

“Who knows? Maybe I can pass. But I was worried. It looks fresh, but it’s been a longtime cut.”