The Machine Breaks the System: Dvalishvili's Historic Stats Expose UFC’s Bantamweight Roster Crisis

The UFC's bantamweight division pressure gauge has shifted from 'Contested' to 'Conquered,' courtesy of a man who fights with the relentless, unyielding pace of a clockwork automaton Merab 'The Machine' Dvalishvili. As he prepares to step into the cage for the main event of UFC 323 this weekend against former champion Petr Yan, the focus is less on the fight itself and more on the systemic damage his unprecedented statistical dominance and activity are inflicting on the entire roster. Dvalishvili had uncharacteristically come into 2025 having only competed three times in a single calendar year once before, but he has since become the defining variable in the sport’s schedule, forcing himself into title defenses at a frequency nobody else can sustain. This weekend marks his fourth successful title defense in 2025 an achievement that would make him the first champion in UFC history to accomplish such a feat, surpassing a record that only seven fighters had previously even tied at three defenses in a year. His style is the essence of attrition: a suffocating, unbreakable cardio coupled with an Olympic-level wrestling attack that has seen him set and continually break long-standing promotional records.

The team's response to this historic run has not been one of unbridled admiration, but one of exhaustion the exhaustion of the roster itself, which cannot keep pace with his metrics. The official scenario is that Dvalishvili is cementing his legacy as the greatest 135-pound fighter of all time, but the subtext is that he is actively running out of high-level competition before the organization can properly line them up, having already beaten the number one through number four ranked bantamweights. The champion’s statistical dominance is the engine of this crisis, forcing matchmakers to resort to rematches. He holds the official UFC record for most total takedowns in history with 117, a figure that absolutely shatters the decades old record previously held by Georges St-Pierre. Furthermore, his single-fight output is terrifying: against Cory Sandhagen alone, he landed 20 successful takedowns, the most ever in a UFC title fight, and against Petr Yan in their first bout, he attempted a staggering 49 takedowns over five rounds another UFC record that highlights his unmatched conditioning and relentless offensive approach that forces opponents to spend every moment on the defensive.

The Machine’s unprecedented pace and record-breaking output leaves the bantamweight division adrift, forcing UFC matchmakers into a constant scramble to create credible threats for a champion who simply refuses to take time off. His career average of 6.40 takedowns per 15 minutes against elite competition demonstrates a sustained, grueling output that few active fighters across any division can match, statistically elevating him into a class of his own. While Dvalishvili remains solely focused on the competition, arguing he doesn't need to generate trash-talk drama because "the people will watch anyway," the dramatic contradiction between his unparalleled statistical dominance and the rest of the division's standard pace means the UFC will, for now, remain embroiled in a crisis of talent depth, desperately searching for the fighter who can finally force the unstoppable 'Machine' to cool down.