“The Machine” doesn’t need a pinky toe because he’s got more toes.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Bantamweight

Merab Dvalishvili

is gearing up to defend his title for the second time in a high-stakes rematch against

Sean O’Malley

next weekend (Sat., June 7, 2025) at

UFC 316

, live from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

Last week, Dvalishvili

broke his pinky toe

while drilling for this massive rematch, catching a training partner’s head with a kick. He laughed it off, saying, “

I’ll just chop it off!

” His coach, John Wood, added: “

You’d have to kill this guy to keep him out of the cage

.”

Fast forward a week, and this

lunatic

still hasn’t let his toe heal by refusing to take days off. Former UFC champion

Michael Bisping

, curious about the

toe damage

, asked “The Machine” about it, mainly since

Conor McGregor


tanked UFC 313

by bailing over a

busted pinky toe.

It’s safe to say Dvalishvili is not McGregor when it comes to broken pinky toes.

“I don’t want to comment about

Conor McGregor’s toe

because I don’t know exactly the pain he was in or the situation, but I still have nine other toes, so I am fine,” Dvalishvili said.

If that isn’t a Merab answer, I don’t know what is. However, he did reveal that his toe is totally fine.

“Toe is good, like I said, if I need to,

I will cut it off

, but I don’t need to cut it,” Dvalishvili said. “It’s good, it’s good. It doesn’t bother me.”

If “The Machine” somehow drops this

rematch

—his first ever—to O’Malley next weekend, he’s got a ready-made excuse with his busted pinky toe and his own admission he’s struggling to “

to motivate

” himself. But don’t get it twisted:

he’s hell-bent on finishing O’Malley this time

, not just outpointing him like in their first scrap.