Merab Dvalishvili has admitted that he is finding it difficult to get fully motivated for his rematch with Sean O'Malley next month.
The bantamweight champion won his world title from O'Malley back at UFC 306, and will head to Newark for the rematch at UFC 316 on June 7. Despite the former champion's insistence, it is widely believed that Dvalishvili dominated proceedings on a record-breaking show at Sphere in Las Vegas.
And after defeating Umar Nurmagomedov in January, the champion has been tasked with facing O'Malley again, even though he hasn't fought since that night in September.
Following the first bout, there wasn't much of an appetite to see Sean O'Malley and Merab Dvalishvili fight again. The fight wasn't all that close - or even entertaining - and the belief was that Dvalishvili should face other challengers, with the likes of Petr Yan making a better case for a second fight.
"In my professional career this is my first rematch," Dvalishvili said during a recent interview on the Believe You Me podcast with Michael Bisping and Paul Felder. "In Georgia I was fighting pro rules but those fights are not on my official record.
"So I had a rematch before at the beginning of my career. And that doesn't count because I was so new to the game. Now, it's the first rematch of my professional career. To be honest with you, I already beat him and it's hard to get 100 per cent motivated, you know?"
Another factor affecting Dvalishvili's preparations is a brutal broken toe on his right foot. He has shown photos of the injury, which is similar to what caused Conor McGregor to pull out of his comeback against Michael Chandler last summer at UFC 303.
Dvalishvili insists that he 'has nine other toes' that he can use instead of the one that is broken and that he will fight through. "It's okay... I'm gonna cut it off," Dvalishvili said of his broken toe in a social media video revealing the injury.
It follows an audacious moment at UFC 311 when he tricked the California commission into not seeing his severely injured leg ahead of his first title defence.